Characters / Heralds Of Valdemar Mage Winds And Mage Storms

Main Character Index | Deities and General Character Tropes | Mage Wars Trilogy | Last Herald Mage Trilogy | Collegium Chronicles | Brightly Burning | Vows and Honor | Exile Duology | Arrows Trilogy and Related Books | Mage Winds and Mage Storms | Darian's Tale

This subsection of the Heralds of Valdemar Character Sheet covers the Mage Winds and Mage Storms trilogies.

Princess Elspeth and Companion Gwena

The heir to the throne of Valdemar under Queen Selenay. In Arrow's Flight, Elspeth is Chosen by Gwena, a Grove-Born Companion.

• Abdicate the Throne: In Winds of Fury, she steps out of the line of succession because her responsibilities as Heir would irreconcilably conflict with her role as the first Herald-Mage since Vanyel — among other things, the Heir is explicitly forbidden to go In Harm's Way. This has the added benefit of completely confounding Valdemar's enemies who are so power-hungry they can't conceive of anyone doing this willingly.
  • Kero counsels her to continue keeping her and Darkwind as a Secret Relationship for a while afterwards, concerned that people will think she abdicated out of love and she'll set a trend and be taken less seriously.
• Action Girl: Those who are expecting Elspeth to be a pampered royal brat are surprised to find her quite capable with knives, and later with magic as she leads an assassination squad into Hardorn to unseat Ancar.
• Affectionate Nickname: Talia calls her "catling." Kerowyn uses "kitten." When they enter a relationship, Darkwind starts calling her "Bright Feather."
• Altar Diplomacy: A plot point in the Arrows trilogy involves a possible alliance marriage between Elspeth and then-Prince Ancar of Hardorn. Queen Selenay has misgivings about the idea, but there is enough political pressure that they have to at least consider it.
• Appearance Angst: Elspeth envies Kerowyn's good looks, and also considers her family to be much handsomer than she is, calling herself the "plain-plumaged bird". When she tells Darkwind about this he's surprised and tells her that she is very attractive.
• Assassin Outclassin': Early in Winds of Fate, Elspeth manages to overpower an attacker who used magic to get within striking distance. She and Kero both agree that she was very lucky that the assassin was careless and it's very concerning that he reached her in the heart of Haven in the first place. It makes her realize how unprepared Valdemar is for this kind of threat, and she eventually sets out on a mission to bring mages back to the kingdom.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Elspeth shows several signs of this. She's clearly brilliant but struggled in her academic Collegium courses, is at her best when she has to improvise, frequently solves problems using lateral thinking, hyperfocuses on problems that catch her interest("why can't anyone even TALK about magic?"), and has a hair-trigger temper. She's impulsive to a sometimes destructive degree. And, of course, there's her Fatal Flaw: her knee-jerk rejection of anything resembling manipulation and her less than sanguine relationship with authority.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Firesong shows up shortly after Elspeth clinches her romance with Darkwind. She's immediately infatuated with him, and when Firesong, enjoying the drama, reveals that in fact he's very attracted to Darkwind, she becomes sick and dizzy with jealousy. Talking to Darkwind later, when he wonders if Firesong meant it she ferociously scrambles to think of something silly to say and turns out with "If you plan on taking him up on it I'll - I'll - I'll scratch his big blue eyes out!" Having been made just as jealous that she would prefer Firesong, he takes this as intended and laughs.
• Fake Memories: Normally Companions are born to other Companions, grow up, and spend about a decade in Companion's Field before Choosing. Heralds and others who spend a lot of time around the Field know their names and what they've gotten up to. Gwena, Born as an Adult and immediately Choosing Elspeth, causes some Laser-Guided Amnesia and plants false memories in Talia of herself as a shy Companion who's been there all along, and becomes more gregarious having Chosen.
• Family Eye Resemblance: A song printed in the Arrows trilogy is dedicated to the fact that she has her father's eyes, and that's put her mother off her.
• Fatal Flaw: Her extreme reaction to any sort of manipulation, not matter how benign, borders on Idiot Ball (see the Screw Destiny entry). She tends to respond with rage to any questioning of her inclinations. This may be out of PTSD from Hulda and Orthallen. See WMG for more.
• Generation Xerox: She inherited her father Thanel's eyes and good looks and due to Hulda's influence, acted like a Royal Brat. Her resemblance to Thanel brings back bad memories for Selenay which makes it even harder for Selenay to connect to her, contributing to a vicious cycle.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: In Arrow's Fall Elspeth asks Gwena "What is evil?" wanting to have a discussion on the nature of it. Gwena looks at her funny and says :It just is!:, so Elspeth has to turn to Dirk.
• Green-Eyed Epiphany: When Elspeth considers the depth of her jealousy at the idea that Darkwind would choose Firesong, she realizes that her relationship with Darkwind is serious and something she would fight to preserve and continue.
• Hidden Weapons: In the Arrows trilogy, Skif teaches Elspeth how to throw knives for self-defense. She demonstrates on Lord Orthallen in Arrow's Fall, and continues to carry hidden knives on her person in subsequent books, to the point where Kerowyn tells her that she shouldn't rely on them too much because everyone knows she has them.
• Ignorant of the Call: In the Winds trilogy, she sets out to find a mage willing and able to teach magic in Valdemar. Gwena, her Companion, knows full well that Elspeth has incredible magic potential but keeps it from her, imagining how glorious it will be to carry the first Herald-Mage since Vanyel back to Haven. Unfortunately, Elspeth can smell that something is up, and a lot of miscommunication and pain complicate what should have been a simple excursion.
• In the Blood: Invoked when Elspeth announces her decision to step down from her position as Heir, claiming that her reign would be tainted by her status as the daughter of a traitor.
• It's Personal: Gwena is the one to finish off Ancar, and she does it with such fury (and screaming And This Is for... all the while), that she comes across as the Companions' revenge for what he did to Talia, Kris, and others.
• Locked into Strangeness: Power Dyes Your Hair permanently in this setting, bleaching it to white and eyes to blue. Thanks to Adepthood Elspeth returns to Valdemar already graying, which she sees as a positive; if she looks more mature, she's that much further from that perception of The Brat.
• Magic Knight: She combines her knife skills with Adept-level magic to great effect in Winds of Fury, killing both Hulda and the Imperial envoy with them.
• Master Swordsman: As one would expect after a lifetime of expert tutelage. However, she prefers to fight from distance, with arrows and thrown knives (and magic once she's learned it).
• Mind over Manners: Elspeth has good Mind Gift manners. Gwena does not. When they're meeting the Skybolt mage Quentin and discussing the world outside of Valdemar, Gwena listens in on his thoughts and makes rather smug, mean-spirited comments about them to him. Companions often do read minds willy-nilly, but usually if they say something it's for a very good reason.
• Mundane Utility: As a Grove-Born Companion Gwena's telepathic range is much further than a normal Companion's. She's able to make reports to fellow Grove-Born Rolan from all the way in k'Sheyna Vale, something she did not tell Elspeth about.
• Phrase Catcher: In Winds of Fury, she is repeatedly met with, "We thought you were dead," to the point that her traveling companions start calling it "the standard greeting".
• Royal Brat: Her nurse, Hulda, deliberately raises her as a spoiled, self-centered brat until Talia intervenes. It takes her a very long time to shake this reputation. Later, while she isn't afraid of hard work Darkwind still finds her quite arrogant.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: She leads a two-Herald mission to find a mage who would be willing to train new Herald-Mages. Not long thereafter, she returns as a Herald-Mage in her own right, with representatives of the Tayledras and Kaled'a'in as Valdemar's new allies.
• Secret Legacy: She's a descendant of Vanyel by way of King Randale's lifebonded Shavri; their daughter Jisa married Randal's successor Treven, which is not revealed until Winds of Fury and explains her mage gifts.
• Screw Destiny: Partway into Winds of Fate, Elspeth discovers that she's being railroaded by her Companion into a "Grand Destiny" — Gwena intends her to be tutored by a White Winds mage of Kethry's descent. Thanks in part to Kerowyn's training, she immediately rebels against this plan and seeks out the Hawkbrothers instead, to the ultimate benefit of all concerned.
  • Later lampshaded by Altra to Elspeth's chagrin. He somewhat bluntly tells her, in front of the other characters, that the main reason he is being so candid about why they need to handle the Mage Storms a certain way is because he knows that she will deliberately mess things up if she even thinks that "destiny" or a grand plan is involved.
• Shipper on Deck: When Skif develops a Bodyguard Crush on Elspeth in Winds of Fate, Gwena wants Elspeth to go for it. Elspeth resents the suggestion. She's thought of taking Skif up on it, knowing that Altar Diplomacy is always a prospect and she may like the memories of a Friend with Benefits then, but ultimately isn't interested and finds Gwena's nudges intolerable.
• Spare to the Throne: Once her twin siblings are born. She prefers this, since it frees her to devote herself full time to her career as a Herald-Mage.
• Trauma Button: She reacts badly to anything that feels like manipulation, possibly as a result of Hulda's influence. If she thinks she's being Locked Out of the Loop, even for good reason, she'll do something erratic just to regain a sense of control. On the other hand, thanks to Talia, she will cooperate with others if they are entirely open and honest about their intentions, even if they resort to such Brutal Honesty that she bristles.
• Tyke Bomb: Hulda was clearly grooming her for something like this, either politically as a challenger to her mother or magically as a corrupted Adept. When Hulda was discovered, she fled to Hardorn and was more successful with then-Prince Ancar.
• The Unfavorite: Selenay has difficulty relating to her because she resembles her (traitorous) father. They get along better when Elspeth is an adult and they can meet as fellow Heralds, but in her narration Elspeth wishes repeatedly that they weren't mother and daughter and would prefer to be treated like any other Herald.
• You Didn't Ask: Elspeth doesn't learn that Gwena is a Grove-born Companion until someone else casually lets it slip. Gwena also says this line after revealing that she's a mage too - apparently forgetting that earlier in the book Elspeth had in fact asked (sarcastically) if she was a mage and Gwena said no.
• Younger Than They Look: Gwena is a Grove-born Companion, meaning that, unlike other Companions, she is not the Reincarnation of anyone and thus has no experience with the real world. In fact, normal Companions usually don't Choose someone until ten years or so after they're reborn as Companions. Gwena hasn't even had that decade of dealing with other people and listening to their advice and stories. This leads her to make mistakes out of overconfidence, such as trying to railroad Elspeth into her "Grand Destiny".

Darkwind k'Sheyna and bondbird Vree.

A Tayledras Scout for k'Sheyna Vale, which he calls his home. He is bitter and cynical, mostly because of his father.

• The Ace: As a youth, his older brother Wintermoon says everything came easy to Darkwind, from his bondbird to his magic to luck with women, but he had such a sunny, earnest personality that Wintermoon, the Un Favorite, couldn't begrudge him. At the start of Winds of Fate he's turned sour and given up his magic but still had a place of much greater prominence than Wintermoon, and gained greater favor by the end of the book. Darkwind struggles when Firesong arrives and eclipses him, and Elspeth gives him a bit of Epiphany Therapy as she relates his situation to Wintermoon's.
  "He really loves you, just as truly as any brother, but hellfires, Darkwind, it must be awful to stand around and watch you, and see everything you want just fall into your hand like a ripe fruit!"
• Ambiguously Bi: He's only shown in relationships with women and doesn't comment on any dalliances with men, or on their attractiveness, until meeting Firesong, who turns Elspeth's head and is arrogant and far too handsome! Firesong enjoys feeding the jealousy Darkwind feels and eventually reveals to both him and Elspeth that he's very attracted to Darkwind before wandering off. Elspeth mentions her own jealousy, and Darkwind just looks at her for a bit before saying Firesong has made fools of them both. Later, he wonders with a catch in his voice if Firesong meant what he said, but he commits to his relationship with Elspeth after that.
• Angst? What Angst?: His long term girlfriend Dawnfire's human body dies, leaving her mind trapped in her bondbird, and is then taken away by the Star-Eyed and transformed. Darkwind certainly angsts about that in the book where it happens, but he also regards Elspeth as being more interesting and better than Dawnfire while he thinks Dawnfire is dead, and then he doesn't think about her at all in subsequent books.
• Big Badass Bird of Prey: Vree is a "gyrefalcon", one of the largest non-eagle bondbirds, and able to bite through a deer's spine. In Darkwind's first chapter he kills a human this way.
• Bond Creatures: His first bondbird was a tiny owl given to him by his brother, a common companion to mages and not as intelligent or impressive as a scout's bondbird, that didn't enjoy as prolonged a lifespan as a larger bird would have. Vree was his second bird, and Darkwind has had him since he was an "unfinished" looking hatchling. He's considered taking a third, another owl, while Vree is still alive, but the falcon got too jealous and he put that aside.
• Byronic Hero: Can be summed up as more Byronic than Byron, though he's kinder about it.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: On meeting Elspeth and getting on friendlier terms he immediately wanted to know if she and Skif were an item, and justifies asking this as needing to know more about them for the upcoming confrontation with Falconsbane, though he wonders why it seems so important to him. In Winds of Change, part of the reason he initially chafes in Firesong's presence is jealousy about how Elspeth admires and is attracted to him, which has him snapping at both of them.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: Darkwind's mother treated Wintermoon as if he was her own and was not a Super Supremacist.
• Deuteragonist: He's the secondary protagonist of Winds of Fate, dealing with problems around the Vale while Elspeth is leaving Valdemar and traveling. In the other two books of the trilogy, Darkwind is more of a Supporting Protagonist.
• Disney Death: In Winds of Fury, Darkwind is severely injured and apparently killed by Hulda's attack.
• The Fashionista: In happier days, Songwind made a hobby of designing and creating clothes as wearable art. Then the Heartstone blew, his mother died, and atop a great deal else his father openly dumped the outfits given to him on the scrap heap. Darkwind shoved much of his remaining collection into storage to be forgotten like the rest of his prior life, and him breaking open those trunks to give Elspeth a makeover in Winds of Change is a sign of how much he has healed.
• Furry Reminder: With Mercedes Lackey's interest in falconry, she makes sure that however smart and social Vree is, he's still a bird of prey and has much of the psychology of one. Whenever he makes a kill he mantles over it and is reflexively defensive and hostile even to Darkwind, who carefully doesn't look at or touch it while calming the bird down.
• Heroic Bastard: Not that Tayledras attach any stigma to it whatsoever, but Darkwind's parents didn't have much if any emotional connection, taking care of him without living together or being in love. After his mother's death, Dawnfire notes that he can't accept that Starblade and his mother weren't in love.
• Incompatible Orientation: Firesong admits that he was attracted to Darkwind when they first met. Darkwind may possibly be attracted back, but has an existing relationship with Elspeth who he loves on a more thorough basis and won't risk like that.
• Intellectual Animal: Vree has limited command of language, either understanding or using, but has a sense of humor and is very good with the gryphlets.
• Love Interest: His teeth-clenched teamwork with Elspeth becomes genuine friendship after they initially defeat Falconsbane in Winds of Fate, and eventually blossoms into love in Winds of Change. Elspeth's abdication of the throne in Winds of Fury is as much for his benefit as for hers, since her position as the Heir meant they had to keep their relationship secret for political reasons.
• Magic Knight: Darkwind gave up magic after the accident with the Heartstone that claimed his mother's life and became quite proficient with bow and hook-staff. Once he takes up magic again, he rapidly regains his former strength.
• Missing Mom: Darkwind's mother was an Adept who was killed in the Heartstone disaster.
• Meaningful Rename: His name was originally Songwind, but he changed it along with giving up magic after the Heartstone accident.
• New Parent Nomenclature Problem: The healer Kethra, giving Starblade a long course of Intimate Healing in Winds of Change, tells Darkwind a little about their relationship and love. Seeing how much good this is doing his father, Darkwind gives her his blessing and says maybe one day he can come to call her Mother.
• Nice to the Waiter: He's very considerate to hertasi in Winds of Fate. At that time k'Sheyna is in a bad state and has cut itself off even from those hertasi that live in a nearby swamp village rather than in the Vale itself, so Darkwind is the only Tayledras many of them see regularly. Asked about their kin in the Vale, Darkwind stops to answer in detail - admittedly this is partially to get their leader back for almost making him fall in the swamp, but it does also mean that he knows a lot about the shy little Lizard Folk.
• Nonconformist Dyed Hair: Tayledras, even non-mages, get white hair at a young age thanks to proximity to the Heartstone. Scouts, who typically have no or little magic, generally dye their hair for stealth purposes. At the start of Winds of Fate Darkwind's dyed brown hair is indicative of his defying his father and the other mages by giving up his magic and working as a scout.
• Odd Friendship: After they meet and Need lets him feel safe and protected while Healing his exhaustion and recognizing his heartache late in Winds of Fate, Darkwind really takes to and trusts her.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Even considering that he temporarily gave up magic, he remains the strongest adept in his clan at a relatively young age. When Firesong shows up, Darkwind is abruptly relegated to a distant second place, and has to spend some time sorting out his uncomfortable feelings about it. Elspeth's awe of Firesong's abilities and beauty, just as she and Darkwind are beginning their romance doesn't help matters, either.
• You No Take Candle: Vree's Mindspeech often takes the form of single words and short phrases. He can make longer statements like "Don't like Vale. Too hot, too empty, feels bad. Don't like crow. Don't go back."

Firesong k'Treva and bondbird Aya

A proud and arrogant young Tayledras Healing-Adept, initially called in from k'Treva Vale to k'Sheyna to assist with the Heartstone there. He becomes involved in Elspeth's training as a mage, and with the fate of Valdemar.

• The Ace: At first, his skill at magic, his handsome appearance, and his utter unflappability make him at turns fawned over and envied by everyone at k'Sheyna Vale. He later reveals some of the price he's paid for this. Elspeth, soon after meeting him, describes him using similar terminology to how their ancestor Vanyel was described.
  "Firesong has Power. Firesong is too beautiful to be human. Firesong is worth admiring. But from a distance. He's not called Firesong for nothing - he breathes in the admiration and everything else around him. Fire can warm you from a distance, but it burns when you get too close to it."
• The Archmage: Falconsbane and the Eastern Empire aside, he is the strongest Adept-level mage in the known world.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Firesong is innovative, iconoclastic, impulsive, quick-tempered, easily bored (in fact he spends a good part of "Storm Warning" complaining about having to do math), and deeply sensitive to rejection. Silverfox and Kelvren both independently note that he essentially lacks object permanence, with Silverfox telling Darian that he can never remember which room he left his boots in, and Kelvren reflecting that he probably already has the correct magical artifact for a procedure in his possession, but has no hope of locating it unless Silverfox finds it for him.
• Author Avatar: Becomes this for Mercedes Lackey. In Kelvern's Tale, Firesong is growing older and Feeling Their Age reflecting Mercedes Lackey herself (who is in her 70s when Gryphon in Light came out)
• The Beard: He offers an inversion of the standard use to Darkwind and Elspeth in Winds of Fury, capitalizing on Valdemaran assumptions about the Tayledras by pretending to be the Darkwind's lover so people would think that Elspeth could be in no way involved with him.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Only Companions are in for more characters going into raptures about their looks. Firesong is unfortunately aware of this and quite likes to be the center of attention and to cause and solve problems related to people being attracted to him, but it's quickly shown that he does still have the typical Tayledras dedication to addressing major problems wholeheartedly and without reserve. Mage Storms, where he's a point of view character himself and much more out of his depth, pokes more fun at him and highlights his flaws more.
• Camp Gay: He is blatantly shaych, and proud of it.
• The Charmer: Firesong revels in attention and loves to both cause and solve problems re: people being attracted to him, though he has enough of a sense of ethics to try and wrap things up more quickly when circumstances require everyone to be focused.
• Cool Mask: Firesong starts wearing masks, each one more elaborate than the last, when he gets his scars at the end of Storm Breaking.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: For An'desha when the mage storms start messing with his head. He considers killing Karal, An'desha's Heterosexual Life-Partner, because he thinks they are having an affair behind his back, even when there is ample evidence that Karal likes Natoli and neither he nor An'desha like each other that way. He also quite liked An'desha being dependent on him and resents him coming to stand on his own two feet.
• Deuteragonist: Of Storm Rising, where the plotline of him starting down the slippery slope thanks to the influence of the Storms occupies nearly as much space as Karal's plot.
• Ethical Slut: Pretty well cuts a swath through any available and interested men.
• Everybody Wants the Hermaphrodite: Firesong, with his 'balanced' masculinity and femininity, is attractive to both men and women and loves the attention, even if he's only into men himself. He delights in causing conflicts in established couples as each becomes jealous of his effect on the other.
• The Fashionista: He loves fashion, and always has to make a statement.
• Fisher Kingdom: As a Healing-Adept, the state of the environment can affect his emotions. When the mage storms start tearing up the land, they cause his mental state to deteriorate in turn.
• Feeling Their Age: Despite his supernaturally youthful appearance by Gryphon in Light, Firesong is feeling his age. He's more careful about his actions and comforts that were indulgences in his youth are now necessary to accommodate for the aches and pains of old age.
• Gayngst: Coming from a Non-Heteronormative Society Firesong has a bit of culture shock in Valdemar, where he just doesn't find as many partners as usual because being gay is more complicated there. Even in the capital of Valdemar, after breaking up with An'desha he has a long dry spell before Silverfox arrives. This sense of isolation has him deciding not to return to Haven at the end of Storm Breaking.
• Happily Married: Eventually; practically married to Silverfox, and very content with his life.
• Immortality Immorality: In Storm Rising he gets really intent on finding a way to live forever through similar methods as Ma'ar. He's moral enough to get hung up on the fact that to take new bodies means suppressing or destroying their original inhabitants but not enough to stop considering it, thinking about vile criminals and unborn babies. This is a setting where the soul only settles in a baby upon its first breath, so to his mind the main trouble there would be magically growing up and dealing with parents.
• Insufferable Genius: Has shades of this, being supremely confident and proud of his power. In Mage Winds the other heroes grudgingly admit that he's good enough to earn this attitude.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: Firesong becomes Need's bearer in The Mage Storms, even though she's thought of as Gender-Restricted Gear. He believes it's because the entire group was male, so as a feminine gay man he was probably the Closest Thing We Got. When Need took to him back in the Winds trilogy Nyara said he's completely balanced between masculine and feminine and so can use womens' magic as well as mens'.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Can be something of an arrogant prick, but generally still has the classic Tayledras willingness to give his all to help make the world better. He's become less of a jerk by the Owl books.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Came very close to turning into another Ma'ar, but stopped before he took the final plunge. Again, the slope was extra-greasy because of the Mage Storms.
• Lethal Chef: A Running Gag in Storm Breaking was for someone in the Tower to be horrified at the thought that it was Firesong's turn to cook.
• Light Is Good: Firesong sure does love a dramatic entrance. He shows up in Winds of Change in a snowstorm, all dressed in white, riding a white dyheli, with his white firebird Aya. While he's not as selfless and noble as, say, his most famous ancestor, he is a good person.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: He is described as incredibly attractive, almost animesque, with flamboyant and ever changing hair and clothing styles, the pale skin and hair associated with Adept mages, and an intensely sexual presence.
• Masking the Deformity: He horribly burns his face while helping to prevent The End of the World as We Know It at the end of Storm Breaking. After a bout of self-pity that extends to being jealous of another participant who was blinded but retained his looks, he takes to making and wearing increasingly elaborate masks to hide his scars. This trait remains when he reappears in Owlsight, where he uses them to spare others the pain of looking at his rather scary face. Being an Agent Peacock, he makes the masks into fashion statements, designing them himself and coordinating them with his outfits.
• Mystical White Hair: All Tayledras become white-haired young thanks to proximity to the Heartstone, but it happens to mages even faster. It's a point of pride for Firesong that his hair was all white by the time he was ten years old.
• Older and Wiser: In Darian's Tale and even in Storm Breaking. Silverfox had a lot to do with the change, as did the mage storms.
• One Riot, One Ranger: When k'Sheyna finally reaches out to other clans asking for help, Firesong (riding a dyheli with a minor amount of magic, who's very Out of Focus) is the one who comes to their aid.
• One-Steve Limit: Shares a name with a different Firesong k'Treva, a scout who was part of his same clan back in Vanyel's day, contemporary with Vanyel's son Brightstar. It's unknown if he's aware of her existence; the Tayledras tend to favor mages over non-mages.
• Playing with Fire: Aya is a firebird, the only bonded firebird shown. Firebirds tend to, well, set things around them on fire when they're upset and generally have a flighty nature, but it seems Aya is quite steady.
• Power Levels: He's an Adept, which is already rare, and specifically a Healing-Adept - his powerset is geared to helping the land and general environment recover from magical contamination.
• Really Gets Around: On the infiltration into Hardorn Firesong has to spend weeks without so much as a hookup and notes unhappily that this is the longest dry spell he's had since he was quite young.
• Scars Are Forever: The burns on his face and arms from saving the world in the last Mage-Storm wave. Justified, even with his immense Healing abilities, because they came from molten metal when Need exploded.
• Snake Oil Salesman: He disguises himself as one when he joins the infiltration team going into Hardorn. Subverted as well, because his "Magic Cure-All" is brandy laced with medicinal herbs, and really does work on upset stomachs - the main thing it's purchased for, since it's being marketed to people who've been eating greasy fair foods of dubious quality.
• Superpowerful Genetics: Remember these twins Vanyel sired in k'Treva? Firesong is descended from them "on both sides".
• Technician Versus Performer: Firesong views magic as an intuitive art. and disdains attempts to analyze magic. This bites him harm come the mage storms where the only way understand the unprecedented phenomenon is scientific analysis. He grows out of it by "Gryphon in Light" where he has a much more analytical approach to another unprecedented magical phenomenon.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In Storm Rising, after he spends the whole book brooding over immortality and getting irrationally irritable about An'desha, Aya takes offense to one of his ideas and Firesong flies into a rage and tries to kill his bondbird. Darkwind and Elspeth immediately burst in to shout at him, and he has a Heel Realization and stops.

Treyvan And Hydona kena Leshya'nay/K'Leshya

Two gryphons who live outside of k'Sheyna vale. They have a pair of gryphlets of their own and are also surrogate parents to Darkwind k'Sheyna.

• Ambadassador: Both are excellent fighters, being both gryphons and scouts from the Silver Gryphons, and serve as ambassadors of the Kaled'a'in to K'Sheyna and Valdemar.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: As they're the first gryphons various POV characters ever see, their beauty is frequently remarked upon throughout Mage Winds and Mage Storms, with Karal even correctly deducting that they seem to have been shaped by the hands of an artist.
• Famed In-Story: Treyvan and Hydona become quite renowned to other gryphons. Kelvren calls them Great Ones and is awed in their presence.
• Fearsome Foot: Treyvan's forefeet are a third larger than Darkwind's large hands, and capped with wickedly curved long talons. Hydona's are even larger, as she is bigger overall.
• Feet-First Introduction: Seven or eight year old Darkwind encountered them by rounding a corner and seeing legs, then looking down at Treyvan's clawed feet, and then up - and up.
• Good Parents: To Jervan and Lytha, their two little gryphlets. Indeed, Hydona's maternal instinct is seen as one of her defining characteristics by other characters, and Treyvan is just as loving a father as she is a mother. In Winds of Change, on seeing their children having a rowdy snow battle with Darkwind, Elspeth, and Gwena, rather than breaking it up they both join in.
• Happily Married: It's unknown if gryphons marry, but Treyvan and Hydona love each other deeply even after two gryphlets and trekking all over the continent.
• Hypocritical Humor: Treyvan has some trollish inclinations around Darkwind but can't stand when Vree dives to snatch at his crest. Hydona is a bit more amused about it.
• Mama Bear and Papa Wolf: Although Hydona is a bit more protective of her offspring than Treyvan, they are still willing to do anything for the sake of their gryphlets.
• Meaningful Name: In the Kaled'a'in language "Hydona" means "Kindness".
• More Deadly Than the Male: Hydona is larger than Treyvan (and they're both enormous, able to look Elspeth in the eye while she's riding Gwena!) and fiercer.
• Parental Substitute: For Darkwind. They take him under their wing after he loses his mother and his father starts to push him away. Both refer to him as their "featherless son", and he loves them a great deal.
• Put on a Bus: They're present in the Mage Storms books and even come with the party to the remains of Urtho's tower at the end of Storm Rising, but promptly return to Valdemar early in the next book. They were uneasy about leaving their gryphlets for too long, it turned out that having Kaled'a'in as a first language did not mean they could effortlessly translate old documents, due to linguistic drift, and being in an underground space made for humans is hard on bear-sized fliers, though these two are less claustrophobic than many other gryphons.
• Sapient Eat Sapient: While they never show any inclination towards eating humans, the gryphons are quite happy to foster the impression that they're willing if it's useful to scare someone. While Training the Gift of Magic, Hydona smoothly hints to a high-class student who is balking that her children appreciate meat of good breeding.
• Shipper on Deck: Hydona, chatting with Nyara, is quite in favor of her hooking up with Skif. Need dryly says that of course Hydona's in favor of people having mates, suggesting it may have come up in Need's contact with her.
• Secret-Keeper: In Winds of Change they're in contact with Need and watching over Nyara from a distance to help make sure she's safe and unbothered even by Skif, without anyone the wiser.
• Sex by Proxy: Like humans gryphons can mate at any time, but due to their magical creation making it a little more complicated, they use magic to ensure their fertility. Magic that spills over and causes an intense surge of lust in those nearby who aren't shielded against it. In a Noodle Incident, a teen Darkwind was in range and unprepared when Treyvan and Hydona were concieving Jervan and Lytha, and is now a bit flustered by the memory.
• Snake Talk: Because of the gryphon vocal anatomy.
• Stern Teacher: Both are somewhat this, first to Elspeth and Darkwind, and then to the various mages brought to Haven for training to fight against Ancar. They're quite friendly outside of lessons but expect a lot of effort and attention during them.
• Training the Gift of Magic: Darkwind attempts to teach Elspeth himself, but between being rusty himself and a clash of personalities he had to stop. The gryphons take over for him quite competently, Treyvan giving Darkwind a refresher course while Hydona starts with the basics with Elspeth. When they're sent to Valdemar, the gryphons readily volunteer a similar service, teaching Gifted Heralds to use magic and helping them and allied mages from other countries learn to work in tandem.
• Troll: Treyvan likes to tease Darkwind, starting from their very first encounter - watching the child play pretend that he was a great mage about to encounter a monster, Treyvan let the child round a corner and discover him, then said "Grrr" as he looked in horror up at Treyvan's hooked beak.
• Trrrilling Rrrs: Because of the gryphon vocal anatomy.
• Women Are Wiser: Hydona is mildly Out of Focus compared to her mate, and doesn't display the same degree of vanity and temper he does.

Starblade k'Sheyna

Darkwind k'Sheyna's father, an extremely distant man who alienates his sons in order to protect them from Mornelithe Falconsbane's influence over him.

• Amplified Animal Aptitude: Hyllar the crested hawk-eagle is just about the most intelligent bondbird in the whole series, stopping to think about what Elspeth and Darkwind tell him as they rescue him, aware of his likely future as a bird of prey with an injured wing, and able to make and execute a plan that has him bonded, comfortable, and also able to help a proud human who won't like to think of being helped.
• And I Must Scream: In Winds of Fate he percieves himself as having two selves, one which loves Falconsbane as his Master and always seeks to please him and follow his plans, and some shadow of his old self, who has a trace of choice, some of the time, but is locked out and a helpless passenger whenever he's called on to serve Falconsbane, or whenever he tries to do anything about it.
• Big Badass Bird of Prey: Hyllar is enormous and has huge claws, but the 'badass' part is pretty downplayed by the time he appears - injured by a poacher, even with healing magic it's unlikely he'll ever recover enough to fly well again. He's also so big that weakened Starblade can't easily carry him around, so he walks a lot.
• Break His Heart to Save Him: Being well aware of how much his new master wanted a father/son set of enslaved adepts, he devotes what freedom of action he can muster to deepening his estrangement from Darkwind and souring him on taking up magic again.
• Bond Creatures: Originally a falcon, then when tragedy struck a crow replaced them. Finally ends up with Hyllar, a crested hawk-eagle of bondbird breeding.
• Creepy Crows: His crow bondbird, in Winds of Fate, is standoffish and unfriendly, quite unlike most corvid bondbirds. Other Tayledras dislike it, finding the way it stays on a perch like an art object instead of acting like a bondbird, or even a normal crow, strange. That's because it's not a real bird, but a construct Falconsbane made to monitor Starblade and keep the brainwashing in place.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: He pushes Darkwind away to protect him.
• False Memories: After Falconsbane captured him at the site of a wildfire, brainwashed him, and let him go, Starblade believed that he'd suffered smoke inhalation and hid in a burrow for a few days, and was brought food and water by the crow that became his bondbird. The truth only dawned on him after the Heartstone fractured.
• Fantastic Racism: The extent to which any of this was true before Falconsbane got his claws into him and Starblade started pushing Darkwind away is unknown, but Darkwind sourly reflects that Starblade believes the hertasi are only good for servant work and have the minds of children, and that he would slit Nyara's throat on sight just for being a mutant. Certainly he had Super Supremacist leanings, as he basically abandoned Wintermoon for not being born a mage but celebrated his younger son.
• Florence Nightingale Effect: The Shin'a'in healer Kethra consensually inflicted both pain and pleasure on Starblade, as Falconsbane had used both to break him. By the middle of Winds of Change she's wearing his birds' feathers in her hair, functionally marrying him.
• Impaled Palm: Once Vree kills the crow controlling him, Starblade can gasp his relief at its death but still can't speak freely. Getting the rundown of what had happened from Darkwind, one of his fellow mages gets Darkwind to pierce Starblade's palm with a dagger in order to break Falconsbane's control.
• Manchurian Agent: Brainwashed by Falconsbane, on his orders Starblade weakened the Heartstone and arranged for the disaster that saw k'Sheyna divided, with most of the noncombatants, scouts, and lesser mages stranded at the site of a new Vale and the surviving powerful mages mired in fruitless efforts.
• Mental Health Recovery Arc: In the second book, a Shin'a'in healer by the name of Kethra, one of Kethry's descendants, comes to stay in the Vale with him and works to try to undo what she can of the damage Falconsbane dealt to his psyche. Darkwind and Elspeth also arrange for him to have a new bondbird, Hyllar, which not only lets him have that important Bond Creatures connection again but allows him to feel more of a sense of accomplishment by helping the injured hawk-eagle. By the end of the book he's still weakened and faded compared to the father Darkwind had known, but he seems kinder as well.
• Mind Rape: How Falconsbane brainwashed him.
• Parental Abandonment: Even before tragedy struck the Vale, he was a very poor father to Wintermoon, his oldest son. A woman from another Tayledras clan arranged to bear twins with Starblade's contribution and leave him one while taking the other, but when Wintermoon proved to be a Muggle Born of Mages Starblade was disappointed and would have nothing to do with him - if no one had told Wintermoon of their relationship, he wouldn't have known it. By the end of the trilogy he's started reaching out to his son.
• Super Supremacist: Firmly believes that mage-Tayledras are superior to non-mage Tayledras, and regularly browbeats Darkwind for giving up magic after the Heartstone disaster though his harshness to Darkwind is a Break His Heart to Save Him ploy. In the second book, Wintermoon says he's happy for Darkwind that Starblade is recovering, but also that Starblade's treatment of him as his non-magical son had not changed for better or for worse.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Ruminating on his own weakness and being around Kethra really does him some good.
• Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Darkwind thinks he'd kill Nyara just for being a Changechild and specifically at least part 'Other' or descended from a blood-path mage. When he has to tell Starblade and the other Elders that he's given her shelter, Starblade erupts at him and says she'll be "bound and staked". The two more moderate mage-Elders present don't share his degree of prejudice against mutants and become uncomfortable enough to say something.
  • His views on Changechildren might have worsened after being captured by Mornelithe Falconsbane, a Changechild, who then fed Starblade's bird Perry to Nyara.

Herald Skif and Companion Cymry

See entry on the Arrows Trilogy And Related Books page.

Need, aka Sister Lashan

A magical sword that has been around since before the Mage Wars, dedicated to helping and protecting women in need. The sword previously appeared in the Vows and Honor books and in By the Sword, where she began to evidence more personality, but only in Mage Winds does she regain full sentience, revealing that she was originally a priestess who sacrificed herself to bind her own spirit to an enchanted sword.

• Adaptational Nice Guy: The short story Women's Need Calls Me is set soon after the conclusion of the Mage Wars, and in it Need has a very different characterization than she does upon awakening. She's much kinder and not irritable or cynical at all, nor does she call people 'children'. This might mean that in the two thousand years between this story and the Mage Winds trilogy she Took a Level in Jerkass. Considering that in flashbacks to before this story she had a Good Is Not Nice personality, it can probably be attributed to the same force that gives her such a different powerset in this story: it's been 23 years since Mercedes Lackey wrote Need, and she forgot.
• Adopting the Abused: Her taking to Nyara can be read this way, helping the girl learn greater independence and backing her.
• And I Must Scream: When in psychic contact with someone, she shares their senses. When not in contact (or when deliberately blocked out), she cannot feel anything, at least not when she first put herself into the sword. Elspeth, who she shares the memory with, finds this to be "the most truly, profoundly horrifying experience she had ever had". Need is naturally quick to chastise anyone who knowingly shields against her. However, by the time of the Winds books she's less limited, able to read minds and senses many miles away and venture into the spirit world at will, even talking to people there while simultaneously acting in the real world. Firesong mentions in Storm Breaking that she can magically sense the world around her without help but it's quite distorted and a distinct effort.
• Angel Unaware: The distinction between "angel" and "helpful spirit connected with the divine" is a bit nebulous in Velgarth, but there certainly are a lot of suggestions that she's something equivalent to a Companion. Being picked by her feels like being Chosen, though not as strong. Companions usually like and are willing to talk to her. She's strongly associated with the Star-Eyed Goddess and her Avatars. In an essay by Larry Dixon he describes the traits shared by most people who undergo an Angelic Transformation, and says these people are then often called on to answer desperate prayers regardless of which god is addressed - which could even fit the call Need passes on to answer the desperation of women. She does seem to be more independent, though, and more characters are suspicious of her.
  Such a transformation is most likely if they have been a strong, stable mix of heroic, loving, resourceful, and wise in their life.
• Anti-Magic: In the hands of a non-mage, Need provides a considerable degree of protection against magic. As shown in The Oathbound, this effect is potent enough to undo the magic of a demon on the threshold of godhood. In By the Sword, Quentin magically "convinces" Need to extend some of her protection against magic not just to Kerowyn but to the rest of the Skybolts as well. A waking Need is able to absorb as much magic as Mornelithe Falconsbane can throw at her and transmute it into power she can use.
• Back for the Finale: After being Put on a Bus for most of the Mage Storms trilogy, Need returns late in the third book for the preparations for the Final Cataclysm.
• Badass Teacher: When a totally untested Kerowyn takes Need to track and rescue Deorna, the sleeping sword starts nonverbally teaching Kero to track, move silently, and anticipate the enemy, always stepping in and possessing her when Kero got in over her head. Later, she spends months with Nyara teaching her survival skills and independence.
• Because You Can Cope: Abandons Elspeth for Nyara, saying that Elspeth is quite healthy in mind and body and on top of that has just met a prospective mage-teacher. Nyara has no one and has run off shoeless and unprepared into the wilderness. Elspeth dislikes Need and is really only annoyed that Nyara stole 'her' sword, which makes Need retort that she doesn't belong to anyone.
  • More cruelly, after some months Need goes silent and unresponsive for several days in order to force Nyara to realize that she's no longer completely dependent on her and can plan and act on her own.
• The Blacksmith: She was a fighter in her youth, but in her old age she was a Mage-Gifted swordsmith.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Woman's Need calls me, as Woman's Need made me. Her Need I will answer as my maker bade me. As a magic weapon specifically made to protect women, Need physically and psychically compels her bearer to come to the aid of any woman in trouble, forcing this trope upon them and usually causing them quite a bit of trouble in the process.
  • Averted when awake, at which point she's well able to choose her battles. Still, Need has the general feeling that if she knows about something and can make a difference, she should, and fears becoming passive.
• Clingy MacGuffin: Once Need chooses a bearer, she's magically bonded to them until it's time to pass on to the next wielder. She can be left in another room without trouble, and it seems the restriction was eased for an elderly Kethry who kept her on a wall for years without issue, but when Kerowyn kept her on a pack horse that was then swept away in a river crossing, the sudden distance caused a great deal of pain.
• Cool Old Lady: She was at least middle-aged before she sealed herself into a sword, and has been in sword form a very long time.
• Cool Sword: Unbreakable, never rusts or loses her edge, and can bestow incredible defenses to her bearers - and this is just while she's asleep. As a living human, she thought it was absurd that the swords she made got decorated with precious metals and gems and resold for much higher prices - when she made them, including the one she sealed herself into, they were plain. Even if all of the official art of Need gives her an elaborate hilt.
• Creepy Good: Kerowyn and Elspeth are very suspicious of her, her motives, and her capabilities, Kero being uneasy about her ever since Need did all the work of rescuing Dierna. Elspeth dislikes even such minor aspects as Need being unusually easy to use and clean. Later, Firesong notes discomfort with talking to someone without eyes to look into or a face to read.
  There had been such a feeling of power when Need had responded to her — a feeling of controlled strength, held back, the way a mastiff would handle a newborn chick.
• Cursed Item: Need is a powerful ancient Clingy MacGuffin with nasty side-effects that may hinder the bearer to the point of almost getting them killed. She leans on the helpful side - Kethry is told that Need exacts a heavy price which is worth it - but Tarma and Kero are inclined to consider her a curse. When she appears in Storm Breaking, Firesong is glad to see her and benefit from her expertise but rather dismayed to find out he's her bearer.
• Deadpan Snarker: She's noted to have a very dry wit, and will use it with impunity including on herself, much to the detriment of everyone around her.
• Detect Evil: Need has mind magic and can tell when a man has abused women, and woe betide a bearer who'd prefer to get out of this peacefully. She has more nuance about it when awake and gets to use this insight and her own suspicious nature to make split second judgements about people.
• Does Not Like Men: Downplayed. Need's call to protect women extends to female attackers, so she kills men only. However, when awake she is simply better-inclined towards women and tells Nyara not to expect her to be too prejudiced against men, because that would make her too much like a He-Man Woman Hater in reverse.
• Easy Sex Change: 'Easy' is overstating it, but in Women's Need Calls Me Need is able to drain and focus the magic of a Changecircle to fully transform Pol overnight, though in the process Need overtaxes herself and has to go to sleep for a lifetime or two.
• Elderly Immortal: Played with. Her sword body is thousands of years old, and in the spirit world she resembles a sturdy old woman, but it's primarily because that's how she looked when she died.
• Emergency Transformation: Need became a possessed sword after her community was attacked by a foe she was too old to defeat in order to guide and empower her apprentice. Either because she did it to herself or because she's had a long time to get used to it, she doesn't seem bothered by it. Need is also able to do this to others and offers to transfer Dawnfire's soul out of the bird it's trapped in and into either some other creature with a brain large enough to support a human mind, or into something like a sword. Dawnfire's boyfriend immediately angsts about the idea.
• Empathic Weapon: Even prior to fully reawakening, Need has a will of her own, choosing her own wielders and magically compelling them to help women in distress. When Kerowyn takes her up in By the Sword, she spends quite a bit of time struggling with Need over just how much influence she's going to allow the sword to have over her, given that the sword's compulsion to save women in trouble lacks any sense of proportion or context.
  • On a whole different level, an awakened Need cares deeply for people who've suffered, for all that she's gruff and cynical with no tolerance for self-pity. She puts a high priority on the happiness of Nyara, a badly abused young woman who she bonds with and tries to help.
• Energy Donation: On her own she only has so much power. It takes her time to fix most wounds and sometimes all she can do is slow a death and make it not painful, but if someone is willing to feed her energy Need can perform feats of healing that are unequaled elsewhere in the setting.
• Equippable Ally: While awake, she's very vocal and sarcastic about being treated like just an inanimate object.
• Figure It Out Yourself: Downplayed, Need will quite readily share information in many cases, but outside of emergencies she likes people to think for themselves rather than relying on her.
• The Fog of Ages: Need has been around for a very long time. She remembers the bearers she had while asleep as if they were dreams, and things that happened while she was awake don't always stay crisp either. When she shows Elspeth and Skif the memory of her last days alive and her death, Elspeth finds the memory and the ways Need thought and felt so old they're inhuman, and Need can't remember her old name. However, it seems like her memories are still around but simply can't always be immediately accessed - while sharing a slightly later memory with Nyara, she comes across her old name.
• Gender-Restricted Gear: It's common knowledge that only women can use Need. It comes as quite a surprise to everyone when Firesong is able to make use of her power, explained as Firesong being "balanced" between masculine and feminine. Kethry, surprised when Need protects a different androgynous Hawkbrother, speculates that sometimes the sword can't tell and decides to play it safe, but Need herself while awake admits she's had a few male bearers, usually gay ones.
• God Guise: Repeatedly meets An'desha on the Moonpaths while in the company of the Star-Eyed Goddess's Avatars and gives him the same kinds of advice and regard he would expect from the Star-Eyed, leading An'desha to suspect she is his goddess in her Crone aspect. At a climactic moment she asks him "Do you trust your Goddess?" in order to spur him to a greater effort. After she manages to save him, he realizes she's not the Star-Eyed and wails that she tricked him. Need rather smugly says she never claimed anything untrue.
• Good Is Not Nice: Need can certainly be kind but she's also irritable, secretive, and has low tolerance for self-pity, which might be the real reason why she's never on page in Storm Warning - she told An'desha in Winds of Fury that if he focused on feeling sorry for himself she wouldn't help him.
• Healing Hands: No hands, but Need's specifically noted as being gifted with "contact healing".
• Healing Shiv: Need has a healing effect as long as she's in contact with or close proximity to her bearer or any other injured woman. After she's awakened, she'll also heal pretty much anyone else, though she will complain about it.
  • At the end of the Winds trilogy Need manages to exorcise Mornelithe to be defeated and spare his host An'desha by giving him a would-be fatal stab wound that convinces the spirit to abandon An'desha's body, then healing the latter bit by bit as she's slowly removed.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In the first place, she killed herself so that she could guide and lend her abilities to her student and help her to rescue the abducted women of their order. At the end of the Mage Storms trilogy, she basically burns herself up to help the heroes prevent the Second Cataclysm.
• Hey, You!: Need rarely uses peoples' names except when she must. "Boy", "Girl", and "Child" are how she usually addresses people, with a few addressed more affectionately as "kitten", "dear", or "partner". She also refers to Companions as 'horses'; unlike most who do that, she is aware of what they are, moreso than the Heralds riding them.
• "I Am Great!" Song: Need, a Filk Song the author wrote about and for her.
  A thousand woman slayers by my point and edge have died!
• Incredibly Lame Pun: Is both the giver and receiver of these at times, usually about swordplay or relating to "need" as a verb.
• Instant Expert: In the hands of a non-warrior, Need lends strength and speed and makes her wielder a master swordsman, allowing Squishy Wizard Kethry to fight like a Magic Knight. Her guidance also lets untrained mage Elspeth draw on a node and fling levin-bolts with zero prior practice.
  • In a more downplayed sense, an awakened Need trains Nyara in survival skills and the use of weapons. Sword work, archery, and slings all take years to master normally, but something about memory sharing or possession means she can compress that time considerably.
• It Was a Gift: When she's asleep, she eventually indicates to her current bearer who she wants to be passed down to, and is given when the new bearer is about to set out into the dangerous unknown.
• Jerkass Façade: When she meets Darkwind she's grousing about being handed over and told to heal him, but within two seconds she's realized that he's been suffering a lot of heartache and speaks kindly to him. Again when she meets An'desha, who she's more reluctant to warm to but who also instantly clocks that despite her talk of not pitying him she is sympathetic to his plight and in fact believes that she's stern to him not to chase him away but because it will give him strength.
• Living Forever is No Big Deal: Need doesn't display strong, unmixed positive or negative feelings about what she is, at least where others can see it, though there's a suggestion that she struggled at first. When talking about offering to put another character into a sword of her own Need says "There's worse fates than being hard to break, heart included." She doesn't want to die and certainly not for anything but a very good reason, but neither is she fearful of it. That said at the end of Mage Storms, when asked about her plans for her afterlife Need says one thing is for sure, she's never putting herself into a sword again.
• Loves Secrecy: Need has her own agenda and basically never lets anyone in on anything if it's not relevant, which is one of the reasons that Elspeth dislikes her. When she reveals that she has a contact in Ancar's palace, she refuses to tell anyone who it is and allows Darkwind to make his own (wrong) assumption.
• Made of Iron: Well, yes, but her sword is also specifically stated to be one that never dulls, will not rust, and is unbreakable by normal means.
  :There are worse fates than being hard to break, heart included.:
• Mage Killer: In the hands of a fighter - or when she's awake and can choose to - Need completely no-sells hostile magic and can carve through shields and barriers to reach the caster. She also once enchants Kerowyn's arrows to help her kill a mage from a distance.
• May December Friendship: Need and her 'daughters'.
• Mind over Manners: Need spies on other characters' thoughts as willingly as Companions do, without their tendency to pretend they're not doing it (but also without making snide remarks like they do with Quentin). That said, she respects stated boundaries like Elspeth's unwillingness to be possessed, and she wants her bearers to become stronger people and not dependent on her.
• Mentor in Sour Armor: The armor is pretty thin and it's not hard to tell that Need cares. She's still snarky, demanding, and underhanded.
• Muscles Are Meaningful: When Need was alive she was a swordsmith, and despite her age had impressive biceps and a sturdy build.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: While possessing bearers she can magically buff their physical abilities so they can fight despite lack of muscle or training, and can make them strong enough to cleave shields. While she's awake she insists that her bearers get some of that training, though.
• Named Weapons: Mercedes Lackey usually averts this trope, as most swords are just weapons and tools and a good warrior never gets attached to their weapons. Need is the sole exception as she's a heavily magical Legendary Weapon, and she's sentient so it would be rude not to call her by name.
• The Needless: As an immobile possessed sword she obviously lacks bodily needs, including for normal sleep. Instead she seems to require time around people she can talk to and who will talk to her, or she 'sleeps' for decades or more, something that also comes upon her when she expends too much magic at once.
• Nerves of Steel: A sleeping Need is quite impulsive, but when she's awake Need's age, nigh invulnerability, and tendency to think things over in detail add up to make her calm and centered in a sudden bad situation. In Winds of Fate the other characters get caught in a doom spiral after hearing that Ancar and Falconsbane are about to meet and ally. Need's the one who snaps them out of it by pointing out the logistical impossibility of it and says it's an obvious trap.
• The Older Immortal: Older than Ma'ar! When talking to Vanyel, who's been a ghost for seven hundred years, Need very pointedly calls him "child", just as she does the rest of the cast.
• Old Master: Knows things about magic and swordplay that the modern world has forgotten.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Absolutely no one in the series calls her "Sister Lashan," even after her original name is revealed. Even 'Need' is a shortened version of the poem on her blade: "Woman's need calls me as woman's need made me/Her need must I answer as my maker bade me."
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: It's not shown, only mentioned, but when the usually calm, controlled Need discovers that the alterations Nyara's father made to her include going into a state of almost-mindless arousal when hurt she becomes furious, incoherent with anger for days, during which she works tirelessly to undo it.
  • This actually helps tie her waking and sleeping peronalities together, suggesting that abuse just really sets her off. While asleep, Need signals to her bearers that they have to act in part by becoming outraged and very angry. She once spikes Kero into a deep gut-fire rage as someone related what Ancar had done to Talia.
• Properly Paranoid: In Winds of Fate, when Falconsbane arranges a trap for the heroes Need questions the circumstances and informs them that it's a trap. If Skif's instincts tell him to check something twice, Need's tell her to check twelve times. She's also very reluctant to fully trust anyone, to the point that when she does give her trust other characters sit up and take notice. Suspicious, cynical, and prickly, Need has some qualities of The Paranoiac, but it's quickly evident that she's kinder than that. Presumably it's her psychic powers that allow her to function as well as she does with others.
• Psychic Radar: Can not only detect people but also their intentions.
• Put on a Bus: She's in the same palace complex as the main characters in the first book of the Mage Storms trilogy, but despite having worked closely with two of them and being able to telepathically communicate at a distance she is completely absent. In the second book there's a mention that Skif, Nyara, and her went to the Clan k'Leysha outpost at some point offscreen.
• Resurrection Gambit: She killed herself with her own white-hot sword, saying in the narration that she'd only seen this done once, in order to anchor her spirit to it so that she could possess and lend power and skill to her apprentice. This was because she was too old and weakened to go after a warlord herself and her apprentice was hale but too inexperienced.
• Roaring Rampage of Rescue: While asleep, if Need senses a woman in desperate enough need she'll spur her bearer into this.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The same applies if it's too late and the woman is dead. All this parallels the situation that had her putting her soul into her sword in the first place; that there was no one else, and a desperate need to rescue the survivors, take revenge for the dead, and keep the one responsible from getting away with it.
• Running Gag: Kerowyn and Elspeth both threaten to drop her down a well if Need won't relinquish some of her control.
• Seeing Through Another's Eyes: Mandatory; Need's mage powers let her perceive the world a little, through distinct effort, on her own, but she otherwise relies entirely on the senses of living people.
• Shared Life Energy: Need is able to facilitate this, taking great stores of energy from one person to use on healing another who is seconds from death.
• Shipper on Deck: She is markedly less enthusiastic about people pairing off than some of the other characters. When Elspeth is having to deal with an unwanted Bodyguard Crush from Skif, Need's the only one sympathetic to her frustration. But she also wants her bearers to be happy, and if that means getting together with someone they like who is good than she's very much in favor.
• Situational Sword: Even before she 'woke,' she could provide her bearer with magical defenses or physical combat skills, whichever was needed. The downside was that she asserted a certain amount of control over her wielder, especially where women were involved.
• So Proud of You: Nyara comes a long way with her help, and Need's not shy in praising her.
• Soul Jar: It's repeatedly stated that she's "inside" of or "imprisoned" in the sword she made. The 'jar' is always on hand as it doesn't appear she can operate outside of it, though she can possess people bearing her and use her telepathy to monitor things happen miles away. Of course, she's also so close to indestructible that having the object her soul is inside of carried around and used to hit people doesn't seem like a major downside.
• Squishy Wizard: While awake she's a particularly minmaxed example. Need has literally no physical ability on her own, has to be carried around, and even relies on others' senses, because she's bound in an inanimate object. However she's got thousands of years of skill and experience to draw on and is arguably an angel - her Psychic Powers, wide range of magical specialties including healing and Anti-Magic, ability to operate at will on the spirit plane, that she's a Magic Knight able to possess people to fight, and on top of all that is unbreakable by normal means, altogether makes her quite formidable.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She's a crusty, sarcastic, and often annoyed old lady and seems to prefer to keep people at an arms' length, but she cares deeply and easily about those who are struggling. She hints a few times at being willing to discuss topics that are dear to her heart, but moves on briskly when those she hints to aren't interested.
• Supernaturally-Validated Trans Person: In Women's Need Calls Me Need gets her old bearer to hand her over to Pol, a closeted trans woman. Said old bearer is reluctant citing that Need is Gender-Restricted Gear, but figures it out.
• Support Party Member: If her bearer is a fighter, Need's role in battle is really just to protect her from magic and heal her injuries. She can possess a non-fighting bearer to take a physical role, but in general, and especially when awake, her role is to protect the party from magic, heal them, help coordinate, and give advice and intelligence. As you might expect from a sword that can't move on her own.
• Symbiotic Possession: Need will possess mages and non-combatants when they're over their heads in combat situations, doing the fighting for them and then immediately relinquishing control. In return, they fulfill her purpose of helping women in peril. When she's awake and can be reasoned with it's more of a Willing Channeler situation.
• Talking Weapon: After she fully awakens in The Mage Winds.
• Telepathy: Need is constantly reading the minds of the people around her, and sometimes interjecting to comment on what they're thinking. In her part of the climax of Winds of Fury she's using this to coordinate and cue four people at once while also taking on her own tasks.
• Time Abyss: Need is probably the oldest character in the setting, having outlived her order, her gods, and any recognizable features on a map. Even she doesn't know how old she is, experiencing total sensory deprivation when between bearers and therefore falling "asleep" for centuries. Elspeth, who's recently spent a good deal of time searching fairly complete archives before she hears about Need's human life, has never heard of anything from it, nor do the Tayledras when she brings it up. Until Need stumbles across it in a memory she's showing Nyara, she's lost the memory of her own name and is mildly embarrassed about it.
  There was no way of knowing quite how old Need was. She had gotten the distinct impression that Need herself did not know. She had spent many, many lifetimes in the heart of the sword, imprisoned, though it was by her own will. That was bound to leave its mark on someone.
  • When meeting the ghosts of Herald Vanyel and Bard Stephen, who've been around for a good seven centuries, Need pointedly calls them children.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: When possessing teenaged Kero to fight a shielded mage, Need throws the girl's dagger, which doesn't make it through the shield. So Need throws herself and hits home.
• Transferable Memory: Can share her memories, her bearer's memories, and others she's picked up with other people. When she wakes up on Elspeth's belt she has the girl find somewhere secure before hitting her and Skif with an Exposition Beam to show them who she was and what she is. Being shown these memories is disorienting and some characters have an easier time of it than others.
• Trickster Mentor: Need has shades of this, being willing to go quiet for a prolonged period to test Nyara's ability to fend for herself, or insulting Nyara's lover to test the girl's willingness to defend him against her.
• Ultimate Blacksmith: Need would claim she was merely very good and there was no great secret to the swords she made - a mage-smith only needed to be very patient and willing to spend more time and energy on each blade. That said, by the time of any of the books those techniques have been lost, and the blade she imprisoned herself inside of has lasted for thousands of years.
• Weak, but Skilled: By herself Need has absolutely no physical ability and struggles to perceive the world at all. Her magic is of moderate strength, though she knows many unusual and difficult things, and she's often surrounded by people whose powers eclipse hers. Pair her with someone who has a body, even one not used to combat, or with an Unskilled, but Strong mage, and together the two become extremely Strong and Skilled. She can also project herself into the Spirit World at will, an ability restricted to shamans, and act in it while simultaneously possessing a Willing Channeler, working magic, and psychically coordinating several people.
• Weapon of X-Slaying: She may or may not be a demon-slaying blade. Tarma and Kethry aren't sure - she's certainly able to hurt Thalkarsh, but he's not killed in their encounter. Waking Need, when she swears, usually says things like "Demonsbane!"
• Weapon Wields You: Under extreme circumstances - such as being carried into battle against an Evil Sorcerer by a bearer with no training in magic or combat - Need can and will hijack her bearer's body completely, as Kero discovers in the early chapters of By the Sword, though she takes and relaxes this control repeatedly, showing Kero what to do and stepping in when the girl was over her head. She'll also do this if her bearer is incapacitated or if she's affected by an ill-luck charm, trying to escalate in circumstances where Kero and Kethry really don't want to actually kill someone.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Before coming to full sentience, Need would not allow her bearer to harm another woman. This nearly gets Kerowyn killed at least once. She also did this to Kethry and Tarma, as well as costing them quite a few paying jobs because Need would yank them off for 'her' jobs instead - in the short story 'A Woman's Weapon', it's both (although the woman they saved did pay them afterward). After several years, Kethry was so strongly bonded to a very much asleep Need that if she'd put the sword down and killed a woman with other means, Need would have killed her in return.

Nyara

• Ambiguously Absent Parent: Nothing is ever said about Nyara's mother, even when she relates spying on her father's servants and finding loving mothers to be a fantastical, longed-for concept.
• Animal Eyes: Retains them after most of the magical modding is undone.
• Animal Motifs: Cats, specifically domesticated ones, as a contrast to her father. She also mentions that she was modeled in part after "Plains grass-cats", implicitly cheetahs, and has some of that same nervous anxiety and benefits from a more stable counterpart.
• Barefoot Captives: Runs away from her father's fortress barefoot, and Darkwind notices that the soles of her feet are tough enough that he doesn't think she's worn shoes very often.
• Beast Man: This page refers to her as a catgirl, but she's got clawed fingers and toes, elongated pointed canines, the aforementioned Animal Eyes, very short fur over much of her body, and pointed tufted ears.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Nyara had known kindness once, before her father eviscerated her nurses and started experimenting on her and her siblings and playmates, killing all of them one way or another until she was the only one left. She's strongly effected by Treyvan and Hydona showing her friendship and extending trust to her, so along with the Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal she goes through a full Mook–Face Turn.
• The Dog Bites Back: Falconsbane did not see it coming. When she throws in with the heroes, it's partially out of spite and the desire to thwart him. She's not quite considered to be on their side, although she would like to be, until the second book.
• Cat Girl: Magically altered, though the exact details vary from book to book.
• Child Hater: Downplayed, she has no desire to harm them and in a general sense wishes them well, but she doesn't want to live in the same dwelling as Treyvan and Hydona and cites the presence of the gryphlets. Why and how Nyara is familiar with children is a matter of Backstory Horror considering where she's grown up.
  "I am very sorry, for I am about to say something that will revolt you, Birdkin, but I cannot bear little ones. No matter the species. Giggling in voices to pierce the ears, running about like mad things, shrieking enough to startle the dead - I cannot bear little ones. I have no maternal instinct. I do not want maternal instinct. I do not want to see little ones for more than a short time, at long intervals. And soon there will be two more, this time the very little ones, who cry and cry all night, and will not be comforted; who become ill for mysterious reasons and make messes at both ends. No. I care much for Treyvan and Hydona, but I will not abide living with the little ones."
• Child Of Rape: Nothing is said about her mother, but An'desha, as the owner of Falconsbane's host body, certainly had no say in her conception and refuses to regard her as his daughter or relative at all, which is part of why they generally have little to do with each other even after Falconsbane is gone.
• Covered with Scars: Her face is left unmarked, but she does have scars and Darkwind, inspecting her when she's unconscious, notices that she's got an extensive collection of bruises new and old.
• Cursed with Awesome: While living with Need in the wilderness, Nyara finds that her claws make her very good at climbing. She also believes that her short fur is easier to clean than bare human skin, and of course there are plenty of uses for sharper hearing and an ability to see in low light.
• Cute Little Fangs: Her canines are prominent enough to notice.
• Day Hurts Dark-Adjusted Eyes: Nyara doesn't seem to have any issue with daylight normally, but when winter comes she finds the combination of sunlight and bright ice and snow to be unbearably, painfully bright.
• Easily Forgiven: Falconsbane allows Nyara to escape, then reels her back to find out what she's learned, which includes information about the gryphons Treyvan and Hydona and their children. He then lets Nyara go again. On realizing that the gryphons trust her to help them, Nyara confesses her role. The gryphons are furious with her initially, with Treyvan threatening to kill her, but ultimately her willingness to accept their hostility and help them convinces them that it would be Cartesian Karma to hold it against her. She regards Hydona's friendliness to her in the second book as remarkably forgiving.
• The Empath: She has some degree of the Empathic Gift, but her own hatred and fear kept her from sensing anyone and realizing it until escaping her father.
• Enlightened Self-Interest: When she escaped her father's compound she found a herd of dyheli, antelope-shaped Intellectual Animals allied with the Tayledras, endangered by a poison fog her father had whipped up for them. She decided it would be good to free them partly in and of itself, partly to thwart Falconsbane somehow just out of principle, and partly because it would win her some favor from the Tayeldras; perhaps they would help her in return. Later, while she's already convinced herself to tell Darkwind and the gryphons that Falconsbane got information out of her, she still pauses until she realizes that if his plans aren't stopped then there's no way she'll ever be free of him.
• Exact Words: Before Need broke the control, Nyara was forced to obey Falconsbane's orders to the letter. When he called her back after her escape and asked her about what she'd learned, she was forced to be truthful but tried to tell him as little as she could, hoping he'd miss something.
• Fantastic Racism: As a human warped by magic she's in for hostility from most people. The Tayledras regard her as a "Changechild" at best, a "Misborn" at worst. On meeting her immediately after she gets hurt helping some of his charges, Darkwind furiously thinks that if she's altered her own appearance he'll kill her. His Clan, K'sheyna, is more tolerant of Changechildren than most and permits her to recover in a hertasi village and cross their territory but does not give her sanctuary; other Tayledras clans are expected to kill her on sight.
  • Later, while Need is teaching and protecting her, the sword tries to instill some degree of table manners into her, getting Nyara to cook her kills, then trying to make her learn to eat more temperately rather than tearing the meat apart with her bare hands. Having been brought up more like a pet than a person and seen plenty of humans eat messily, Nyara doesn't see the point. Need is trying whatever she can to make Nyara seem less like a beast, believing that to assuade suspicion Nyara has to be able to appear more 'civilized' than normal humans because they'll be willing to believe the worst of her right from the start.
• Forced to Watch: Because Falconsbane had her so twisted around that she loved him even as she hated him and herself, she was very jealous of Starblade for taking up so much of his attention after being captured. Falconsbane found this amusing and chained her to the bed.
• For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself: Nyara, along with Firesong and Darkwind, puts on a Performer Guise to go into Hardorn, which consists of seams cut into her short fur, a belt with a tail, and an Animal-Eared Headband - the guise of a misshapen girl in cat makeup and accessories. Her role as a performer is "Lady Cat", dancing seductively for small crowds.
• Go Seduce My Archnemesis: After getting information out of Nyara, Falconsbane thinks it would be fine and fitting to have Starblade's son and tells Nyara to seduce Darkwind. She's very attracted to Darkwind but hates to think of playing into her father's plans, so she doesn't.
• Guinea Pig Family: Nyara was used to test modifications Falconsbane wanted to make to himself, and he didn't bother undoing things he'd decided against or that didn't work properly.
• Hates Their Parent: Falconsbane did a number on her emotional state, fostering mingled twisted love and hatred in equal measures in her. Time away from him and with Need slowly helping her grow away from being his slave takes the "love" part out of the equation, but she was trying to defy and escape him before then as well.
• Heroic Willpower: Her father ordered her to seduce Darkwind so Falconsbane could get his hooks into him. She resisted. When he's not actively present he can compel her to come to him, but otherwise she has a degree of freedom and wanted to disobey in any way she could.
• Interspecies Romance: With Skif, in a way; she was born human, but her body was extensively modified via magic.
• Innate Night Vision: By virtue of being literally cat-eyed, Nyara can see well in low light, comparing the full moon to broad daylight. She can also see the glow of body heat, which cats are not known for.
• Living Battery: She has the Mage-Gift but little strength in magic. Falconsbane was able to store magic power in her and then get it back out, usually by hurting her in order to efficiently use large amounts of power without alerting the local Tayledras clan.
• Love at First Sight: Nearly! When Skif came along it didn't matter to her who he was, just that he was a 'safe' outlet for her desires. That he was good-looking and kind and the first person she'd ever slept with of her own will and who didn't think of her as defiled made a serious impression on her. Nyara runs away and is taught greater independence and agency by Need, and when Need sits her down to talk about Nyara's future and what she really wants from life, Nyara finds herself wanting to be with Skif. Helpfully, he feels the same way.
• Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter
• Mental Health Recovery Arc: Offscreen, Need does a lot of work on her, remotely spying on Kethra as she works on Starblade and undoing much of Nyara's programming in a similar way. On screen, Need teaches her skills and independence and helps her to consider, for the first time, what she wants from life.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: By Winds of Fate, Nyara's hatred and fear of her father outweigh the love and worship she felt for him. Initially she only tries to escape, but after he calls her back and forces her to tell him things that let him hurt the first people who've really been kind to her in years, she becomes willing to help them against him.
  • This is also why she runs away from the heroes at the end of that book in a lighter 'betrayal'. While Nyara understands why Darkwind and the gryphons were angry when she revealed that she had been forced to inform on them, she was also very clearly upset and frightened that these people, again the first 'friends' she'd made in years, lashed out at her over it, for something that wasn't her fault. She didn't know if they had good intentions towards her.
• More than Mind Control: As Falconsbane's daughter, who never knew any other life, Nyara had little sense of self-worth and felt a sickened, shameful love for him, though her true sentiments lean more towards hating and fearing him. Also, before Need helped her out she had to obey his commands to the letter.
• Not Used to Freedom: Nyara is quite happy to be away from her father and fears being in his presence again. She doesn't want to go back. But it's a lot of work living on her own, and at first she depends heavily on Need.
• Painful Transformation: Being altered into a Cat Girl in order to test body mods her father was considering using on himself was apparently quite unpleasant. Having them undone is also not fun.
• Parental Incest: Had to endure quite a lot of it.
• Patricide: Nyara attempts it in each book.
• Pointy Ears: With fur tufts!
• Prayer Is a Last Resort: While sneaking back into Mornelithe's compound, Nyara thinks that she's never prayed before but perhaps now... Need tells her that she has it covered.
• Rape as Backstory: Her father was bad enough by himself but he also loaned her out to some of his minions.
• Sexy Cat Person: In Winds of Fate she slinks bonelessly rather than walking and speaks in a seductive purr by default, immediately catching Darkwind's and Skif's eyes. These were imposed on her rather than being choices, and in Winds of Change with Need's help they stop being the default, though she can still be sexy when she wants to.
• Sleeping Dummy: Nyara's magic power is small but when compelled by her father she casts an illusion of herself sleeping in her bed in the hertasi settlement, which is plenty enough to fool them.
• So What Do We Do Now?: Nyara didn't like that she was made into a Cat Girl but refused any suggestion that she should want to be normal. Need made many tiny alterations to her body that Nyara welcomed, giving her more control and less pain, and which led to the girl looking and acting somewhat more human - but Need can't work against resistance, and Nyara doesn't seem to mind having claws, slit-pupiled eyes, and sharp ears nearly as much as she minds the attention they bring her. When the Avatars make her more fully human, Nyara bursts into tears and is afraid that Skif won't love her anymore.
• Super-Hearing: Thanks to the modifications wrought on her, her hearing is very sharp. She claims to be able to hear a mouse squeak in tall grass a furlong away - that's six hundred sixty feet.
• Too Hungry to Be Polite: In Winds of Change she's inclined to just eat a pheasant she's caught, but Need wants her to be civilized so she neatly plucks it, guts it, and makes at least a token attempt to sear it in a fire before just diving in and gobbling the rest. Since Nyara was raised more like an exotic pet than a human with table manners, Need convincing her to eat with more decorum isn't a quick process.
• Villain Override: In the first book, if Mornelithe Falconsbane commands her Nyara must obey, at least when he's calling her to come to him, or when he's actually present. That doesn't stop her from disobeying his orders when away from him.
• Willing Channeler: In contrast to Elspeth, Nyara is happy to let Need take over from time to time and is generally happier about being shown old memories - it doesn't hurt that they displace her nightmares.
• You Sexy Beast: Because to Skif Freaky Is Cool, when she's turned fully human Nyara cries, fearing that he won't be interested in her now that she's not 'exotic'.

Mornelithe Falconsbane, aka Leareth, aka Ma'ar

A powerful sorceror impinging on Clan k'Sheyna's territory and all too happy to take advantage of (and cultivate) weaknesses in the clan. While musing about his past lives, Falconsbane reveals that he was Leareth, the Big Bad of the Last Herald-Mage Trilogy, and Ma'ar, of The Black Gryphon

• Abusive Dad: Falconsbane used Nyara for Parental Incest, as a Living Battery who could be hurt to extract magic from without affecting local power-flows and drawing his enemies' attention, and as a prototype for his own physiological alterations (a process that was excruciatingly painful), additionally implanting compulsions to keep her obedient. He also twisted her mind so that she loved and loathed him in equal measure for everything he'd done to her.
• Ambiguous Situation: Is Krebain, the Big Bad of Magic's Pawn, one of his incarnations? Krebain is based in the same region and extremely like him in personality and action, right down to having made himself more beautiful through magic, hating the Tayledras, and making long range attacks on Valdemarans. He could be one of Ma'ar's apprentices, which is what Vanyel thinks. Would Ma'ar really give those so much power and freedom and allow them to fight his most hated foes? In Pawn Vanyel has prophetic dreams of confronting Leareth, not Krebain, but maybe his Gifts took into account that Krebain would die and a new incarnation would rise.
  • If Krebain became Leareth that would mean he transferred into a new body almost immediately, in time to assume command of the same forces, but that is within his capacity. It certainly would put another huge Nice Job Breaking It, Hero on Vanyel if Vanyel killing Krebain as a mostly untrained teenager drew Ma'ar's attention and enmity and made him prioritize whittling away at the Herald-Mages of Valdemar. And it would also draw a parallel between him and Tylendel/Stefan, who reincarnates more normally in that same span of time.
  • Much later, while discussing Falconsbane the heroes note that if they kill him he will come back, maybe even in the body of one of his daughter's children, so the prospect of him returning to make trouble for the people who had just defeated him is certainly viable.
• Animal Motifs: As Falconsbane it's cats, specifically the lynx he modified this body off of.
• ArchEnemy: The Kaled'a'in and their descendents, the Shin'a'nin and the Tayledras. Ma'ar spends almost every incarnation hunting down or tormenting them. Valdemar is a second recurring enemy likely as revenge for how the founding Valdamarans killed one of their incarnations.
• Archnemesis Dad: He never gives Nyara the same amount of thought that she's forced to devote to him. All three Mage Wind books involve her attacking him in the climax - once to keep him from killing Skif, once an assassination attempt, once stabbing him so he'd believe himself dying and leave An'desha's body.
• Bad Boss: He will kill his underlings for their magical power, to relieve his temper, because they're there... From time to time after a servant particularly pleases him he makes a note to himself that he'd better never kill them in a fit of temper, but whether he keeps to this is unstated. It's noted that he used to be better about this. Once, he worked to inspire love and devotion in his people, with fear as only a background goad, and benefited from much more personal loyalty. However, he decayed slowly through all those incarnations and by Winds of Change keeps his followers in line only through fear.
• Batman Gambit: He pulls a couple of these in Winds of Fate, the book where he's the most active and effective. Knowing how much Nyara longed to escape him, he let her use her minor magics to creep out of his fortress, run away, and ingratiate herself to the Hawkbrothers by rescuing a dyheli herd from one of his traps, later magically compelling her to meet him and tell him what she'd learned, then sends her back. After trapping Dawnfire in the body of her own bondbird, he discussed fictitious plans to ally with Ancar in front of her and handed her off to a servant who couldn't prevent her from flying off and telling the Hawkbrothers about a nice trap they could walk into.
  • Of course, Evil Cannot Comprehend Good. He didn't foresee that Nyara would then tell her new allies that she had been used to betray them, nor that some of these allies could help her to ignore his orders and that she would attack him. Need was a Spanner in the Works for the other plan, too Properly Paranoid and calculating to believe that Ancar could travel so far from Hardorn so quickly that a pair of Heralds who'd crossed the Plains were only a couple days ahead of him.
• Berserk Button: Gryphons. He views them as jumped-up constructs who should be no better than livestock (exactly how he treated his counterparts, the makaar), and their continued existence and prosperity rankles to the point that seeing a shadow of one eventually makes him enter a Berserker Rage. It's actually Foreshadowing of his original identity, since Gryphons were so closely associated with Urtho.
• Beauty Is Bad: Consistently uses magic to change each incarnation's face and body to some different ideal of beauty, starting with the first one. Overlaps with Makeup Is Evil in that the heroes are universally repulsed by the idea that he's changed himself to be prettier and find cosmetic self-alteration to be false and frivolous in and of itself, even without the consideration of where he got the power from.
• Big Bad: Of most of the stories up to Mage Winds.
• Blood Magic: "A frequent practitioner" is an understatement; he tends to default to using it simply because killing other people and using their deaths to generate power leaves his personal reserves untapped in case of emergency. And to make examples. And because he enjoys mauling people to death with his bare hands...
• Body Backup Drive: His Familial Body Snatcher method of immortality is similar to both this and Born-Again Immortality - his spirit waits until it detects a descendent with the characteristics he's looking for - male, powerfully Mage-Gifted, using a common spell without being under the protection of shields. These descendents are usually in their early teens, but he reworks their bodies to be more adult and suit him, and he makes sure to leave a lot of descendents so that he'll always have 'family' to snatch.
• Came Back Wrong: Subtly! With life after life he lost what limited humanity he had, becoming increasingly twisted and losing old skills such as the ability to inspire real loyalty. An'desha, looking through his memories, finds memories of Ma'ar to be the most disturbing, as in them he did have to justify his actions to himself and actually cared about his people, even if 'his people' was a rather limited set.
• Constantly Changing Name: He takes a new name with each life. The Winds- and Storms-era heroes almost always refer to him as Falconsbane, as that's the one they knew him by. By the time he has that name he doesn't call himself Ma'ar in his POV sections, but we have to call him something.
• Control Freak: He thinks he plans for everything, and when something disrupts his schemes he takes it very poorly. This trait even extended into the anti-gryphon monsters he created, the makaar. While gryphons can mate at will (even if it doesn't result in conception), makaar have no interest in sex until their controller triggers spells to force them into heat.
• The Corrupter: His modus operandi. He'll kill rival mages, but he'd rather enslave them. As Krebain, he tried to corrupt both Tylendel and Vanyel (he only failed with Tylendel because of Gala's intervention); in Leareth's day, he had a string of mages in his thrall whose main purpose was to feed him power. As Falconsbane, he enslaved Starblade k'Sheyna and would happily have broken Darkwind and Elspeth to his will if he'd had the chance.
• Creative Sterility: While Ma'ar can create life, it's said in The Black Gryphon that he can only make warped echoes of other mages' work. The only species definitely credited to him are the makaar, which are essentially brutal semi-intelligent gryphons. Thousands of years later when he's Mornelithe Falconsbane, he's generally flanked by two enormous wolflike creatures with bat wings which, while they don't resemble gryphons as closely, are still clearly made in their image.
• Damaged Soul: It's speculated that returning from death so many times has gradually degraded his soul, which he kept in a hiding place that's generally hostile to spirits.
• Deathless and Debauched: Little is known about his personal life as Ma'ar. As Leareth it's only really evident that he liked coming up with Cool and Unusual Punishment methods. By the time he's Falconsbane, he's driven by little but pleasure and power, both with the maximum amount of cruelty involved.
• Demonic Possession: His takeover of distant descendants is compared to this.
• Depraved Bisexual: Overlapping with No Bisexuals; in POV sections he only expresses attraction towards female characters (or decides that like Hulda they're 'overripe'), but he crafts his bodies to be strong and beautiful to give him another weapon to use on his foes, and he enjoys humiliating both women and men.
• The Dreaded: Whenever he shows up, priority one for the heroes is disabling him and his schemes.
• Emperor Scientist: In his original incarnation he had the power and knowledge to create creatures like the makaar. He's often noted to be unable to create anything original so much as warping and copying others' work, so it's possible makaar are descended from gryphons. Regardless, the world changed at the end of the Mage Wars, and he never regained the old heights of his power.
• Enfant Terrible: One of his incarnations was a Shin'a'in child who destroyed the clan the body was born in to. For kicks.
• Evil Chancellor: Once Ancar has captured and placed coercions on him. Unsurprisingly, Falconsbane's immediate plans are to turn the tables.
• Eviler than Thou: To Ancar and Hulda; they died before he could demonstrate it to them, but several of his plans involved mental and physical torture simply to show them where they stood in relation to himself. Then he would kill them, of course.
• Evil Gloating: Positively relishes in this after calling Nyara back to him after allowing her to think she'd escaped, complete with licking her tears off his claws.
• Evil Is Petty: Ma'ar spends almost every incarnation tormenting and hunting down the Kaled'a'in, Tayledras or Shin'a'nin as revenge for his initial defeat, holding onto a millennium old grudge. He targets Valdemar for similar reasons.
• Evil Sorceror: It's the core of his power - he has the pure magical might to make sure he is obeyed.
• * Eye-Dentity Giveaway: In his first incarnation by the time he's showed up at the end of The Black Gryphon he has changed his entire appearance, but Urtho notes that his eyes are the same.
• Familial Body Snatcher: His ability to body-surf is tied to his physical bloodline. Naturally, he makes sure to leave as many 'candidates' behind him as he can.
• Fangs Are Evil: Gives himself prominent fangs as part of the lynx appearance when he's Falconsbane.
• Fantastic Racism: Humans, to him, are worth more than any mage-crafted race, which ought to exist only to serve. In his oldest incarnation he also displayed "normal" racism, cherishing only his countrymen and enacting purges of 'foreigners' when he came into power.
• Faux Affably Evil: When his enemies are in his power he often pretends to friendliness and affection, though never for long.
• Full-Frontal Assault: As Falconsbane he goes nude unless weather prevents it. He's got long fur which requires a dedicated slave whose sole duty is to brush him on command to keep it maintained, but it does nothing to preserve his nonexistant modesty.
• Gender Bender: The founding Valdamarans fought an incarnation of Ma'ar who had possessed a girl named Cloudfall. By the Mage Winds trilogy, according to his own narration Ma'ar's spell only targets male descendents of a particular age and magical aptitude, but he might have changed it over the course of a thousand years.
• The Heavy: No matter where he appears in the story, his presence is what drives the heroes to take drastic action.
• I'm a Humanitarian: In his Falconsbane incarnation he is not above eating his blood magic sacrifices, or other people who catch his ire or happen to be an outlet for his anger. He makes mental note of the "pain-spiced flesh" at one point.
• Kick the Dog: On top of everything else, when he captures Starblade he has a starving, glassy-eyed Nyara eat Starblade's bondbird Perry in front of him.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: He always chooses to escape rather than committing at a dicey moment, starting as Ma'ar; seeing that Skan had brought him a bomb he shouted My Death Is Just the Beginning and killed herself, using that power to launch his essence into his Soul Jar. He uses a Smoke Out to escape the battle a bit less dramatically in Winds of Fate. In Winds of Fury after Need impales him he sees that he has the choice to either pull a Taking You with Me or, again, flee to his Soul Jar, and chooses to flee.
• Last-Name Basis: Rarely goes by "Mornelithe", though it's how he refers to himself in Winds of Change. Typically other characters call him Falconsbane. In the three books in which he's most prominent, the main characters are in Hawkbrother lands, and "Falconsbane" is a greater and more understood epithet than the Kaled'a'in "Mornelithe", but in Ancar's case it appears that he just believes "Falconsbane" is a last name.
• Laugh with Me!: Falconsbane's two wolf monsters aren't all that intelligent but know their cues and when to loll their tongues like smiling dogs, or to back him up with gravelly growls, as he laughs.
• Mad Scientist: This universe's equivalent.
• Maker of Monsters: A staple of how he operates. As Ma'ar he was responsible for the gryphon-like makaar and possibly basilisks and colddrakes. The latter two species survived to the 'present day'. By the time he's Falconsbane he's no longer making independent species, and the 'monsters' include self-modifying so he resembles a lynx.
• Meaningful Name: 'Ma'ar' is a bit on the nose. He's specifically noted as not being able to create anything original, just warp and copy others' work - a line Mercedes Lackey recycles for The Obsidian Trilogy as "The Endarkened cannot make, they can only mar", and is derived from The Lord of the Rings and its statement that "The Enemy cannot make, he can only mock".
• Meaningful Rename: Every one of his incarnations takes a new name, typically in Kaled'a'in as an insult to the race. "Leareth" translates to "Darkness", "Mornelithe" as "Hatred-that-returns". He adds "Falconsbane" as a second name to "Mornelithe" after killing Starblade's falcon bondbird, as well as in a more general declaration of enmity towards the Tayledras.
• A Million Is a Statistic: A very long time ago he was a petty clerk and learned to see people he'd never meet in person as numbers not worth caring about and which could climb very high indeed without meaning anything to him. Lack of Empathy towards people he did meet, and then towards closer contacts, followed from there in time.
• Mind Rape: One of his favorite pastimes, usually including physical rape in parallel. He's gotten very good at it, and particularly likes combining pleasure and pain. This is noted to be both incredibly effective and incredibly difficult to break simply because doing nearly anything will feed into the mental programming he inflicted.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: In Winds of Fate he's accompanied everywhere by two enormous beasts he's made that somewhat resemble wolves with bat wings, each bigger than a gryphon.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: Again and again he uses the death of his body to fling his soul into a pocket dimension, where it waits to inflict Grand Theft Me on one of his descendants.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: As Ma'ar. His rise to power, focus on racial purity, and hatred of the Kaled'a'in mirror Adolf Hitler
• Never Found the Body: Finding the body, when it comes to Ma'ar and Leareth and all his previous incarnations, was never a sign that he was truly gone, but certainly it meant he might not be seen again for decades. However, in both Winds of Fate and Winds of Change he manages to escape the final confrontation, the first time Gating away, the second time getting himself tumbled into the Void between worlds, which Ancar fishes him out of in Winds of Fury.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • He allowed Nyara to escape his fortress and make contact with the Tayledras so she could get information, and thought she would be his loyal agent. Instead she tells them everything she knows, allowing Darkwind to kill Starblade's false bondbird and free him. A free Starblade can't contribute much to the Tayledras efforts beyond more information, but he stops using his considerable influence to hinder them, making a prize that was just about Falconsbane's for the taking difficult again.
  • As Cloudfall, Ma'ar sent the equivalent of a magical nuke against the fledgling city of Haven. The gods intercept that power to fuel the creation of Companions
• Offing the Offspring: There's a single brief mention that Nyara had had siblings, until they displeased him. She also mentions that he's told her repeatedly that he can kill her and make a replacement quite casually, and searches for her when she defies him with the intent of causing a particularly slow and torturous death.
• Orcus on His Throne: Many of his incarnations sit back well away from the action and send apprentices, minions, or creatures to trouble the heroes, sometimes launching long-distance magical attacks. He did this as Ma'ar, conducting military strategy, making monsters like the makaar, and doing whatever else far from the front lines. As Leareth his reach extended hundreds of miles but he didn't start approaching Valdemar himself until he'd spent twenty years picking off Herald-Mages. He does roam about in person as Falconsbane in Winds of Fate and is active and reactive there, but he spends his entire time in Winds of Change without leaving his fortress, and in Winds of Fury he's held captive by Ancar and stays put until he's lured out.
• Outside-Context Problem: None of his bodyjacked descendants knew what was coming. He found and possessed each of them the first time they used their Gift to light a fire, which is the simplest of spells, without the protection of shields - meaning they all knew they had magic, but didn't know enough to protect themselves nor did they have more senior mages protecting them.
  • Valdemar also had no countermeasures for the military strategy he suggested to Ancar, and which Ancar then implemented.
• Palette Swap: In his confrontation with Vanyel at the end of Magic's Price, Leareth looked nearly identical to Vanyel, height included, but with reversed colors - black hair to Van's white, black eyes to Van's silver, and black clothing cut like Herald's Whites.
• Parental Incest: He used Nyara for sex, apparently simply because he could.
• Parasitic Immortality: Two thousand years before most of the rest of the series Ma'ar, the Mage of Black Fire pulled a My Death Is Just the Beginning, killing himself and using the energy of his death to catapult himself into a Soul Jar. After that, he waited for an unprotected male of his bloodline to use magic for the first time and possessed him, destroying the mind of the host. This pattern repeated uncounted times over the centuries. The first time, it was Symbiotic Possession and he persuaded his host to let him in by promising teaching and revenge only to turn on him, but afterwards he didn't bother with such niceties. Each life had him subtly return changed, undergoing gradual Villain Decay from a cruel human into a Stupid Evil monster, Deathless and Debauched, due to his soul slowly accumulating damage. His final incarnation, while possibly the strongest mage in the setting at the time, was a shadow of his old self, unable even to quite recognize how diminished he had become.
• Person of Mass Destruction: How destructive? After Ma'ar died Urtho's superweapon went off and all the magical power his nearby creations and mages had was released in one catastrophic burst, leaving a giant crater that eventually became Lake Evendim. Urtho's tower made a much larger crater despite Urtho managing to clear all his people, mages included, out of the way, but Urtho had lived for much longer in his tower than Ma'ar had occupied the High Palace.
• Pragmatic Villainy: He's got a lot of stupid tendencies by the time he gets the focus that he does in the Winds books, but he does still sometimes show a pragmatic side. In Winds of Fury An'desha, who benefitted from Falconsbane being at odds with Ancar, had to intervene to keep him from deciding to cooperate with his captor for a bit despite hating him.
• Red Baron: His first incarnation was known as the "Mage of Black Fire", and his subsequent ones have kept up the trend.
• Resurrection Gambit: Can use the Blood Magic generated by his death to secure himself back in his Soul Jar hiding place and re-emerge to take a new body when the opportunity presents itself. An'desha, looking at his memories, finds that in each of his lifetimes, starting with the first, he was either killed dramatically or offed himself to provide that magic.
• Saved to Enslave: Did this to Starblade, 'rescuing' the burned Tayledras Adept from a suspicious wildfire. Starblade, believing his rescuer was another Hawkbrother, consented to be saved and lowered his shields, much to his enduring regret. Later, after Falconsbane's evident defeat at the end of Winds of Change, Ancar accidentally plucks him out of the Void in Winds of Fury and reacts quickly enough to slap controlling spells on him. Even while plotting a way out of captivity, he muses whether to kill Ancar outright or spare him so he can give him the same treatment.
• Shoot the Messenger: At whim. He finds it amusing to watch them tremble in fear unsure if they'll be leaving his chambers alive or not.
• Smug Super: He's quite powerful, if not as powerful as he used to be, and thinks of himself as a Magnificent Bastard. While he is genuinely clever and cunning, overall he's more of a Smug Snake.
• Sorcerous Overlord: In every incarnation, he sets up his own private domain to rule over. Each one tends to be smaller than the last, which irks him to no end. The final one is essentially just a small fortress and a range of territory.
• Soul Jar: He's managed to arrange a place for his spirit to hide in and wait for a new body to become available, though unlike most uses of the trope he leaves that shelter to possess someone new and is vulnerable if he can't reach it. Notably, his hiding place remains intact after his final death.
• Spanner in the Works: Valdemar knew how Ancar fought wars, and could prepare accordingly. Then Ancar got his hands on Falconsbane, and the resulting change in tactics and strategy nearly overran them.
• Stupid Evil: He wavers around between villainous pragmatism and his own sadism and temper, which are his undoing at various points. In the Mage Winds books he's basically a Phrase Catcher for "I can't believe our enemy was so stupid!", which is said by the heroes after just about every encounter they had with him.
  • As Ma'ar, the moment he realizes that Skandranon has brought a kind of bomb to lay at his feet he shouts My Death Is Just the Beginning and kills himself - if he had made a Gate and got out of there instead, which considering his power wouldn't have taken any longer than the dramatic way he kills himself, the setting would be very different and far worse.
• Symbiotic Possession: An'desha, hunting through his memories, finds that the first time Ma'ar's spirit took a host body he didn't simply kill its original occupant, but 'seduced' cooperation out of him, offering power and knowledge and the destruction of his host's enemies, and only later took over entirely.
• Transformation of the Possessed: Usually when he takes a body it's in its early teens, and rather than suffering puberty he magically forces it to grow up quickly. Just as he remade his first, original body to be more handsome, he remodels these to his liking. An'desha's he gave extensive lynxlike features, which he first tested on Nyara.
• Unwitting Pawn: To the gods. Turns out that the Powers That Be allowed Ma'ar to live for thousands of years in order to carefully preserve the knowledge he held so that it could be used to help stop the Mage Storms.
• Vain Sorceress: Whenever he takes a body, he uses magic to reshape it to his liking. Often he merely makes it beautiful, but by the time he's Falconsbane, he gets creative and warps himself to look like a man-lynx (testing the changes out on Nyara first, naturally).
• Villain Decay: In-universe example. The method he uses to cheat death causes his mind to deteriorate, making him slowly but increasingly less competent and more overtly evil from one incarnation to the next, and then Falconsbane received a case of brain damage on top of that. He himself is not unaware of this, and somewhat dourly notes that he does not equal his previous incarnations, especially Ma'ar and Leareth, but he does drastically underestimate just how much he's deteriorated in his last appearance. In fact, the Star-Eyed Goddess all but says outright that it is only the Villain Decay that has finally weakened him to the point that he can be permanently destroyed.
• We Have Reserves: A favorite tactic of his, but he also notes that it's a bad idea to spend lives when you don't have them to spend. But if you do, he will happily walk over a mountain of corpses made of his own troops to claim his goals.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Yes. And he has a very nasty tendency to change the definition of "useful" without warning... or decide that your death (and subsequent magical power generated) is of more use now than any use you could be in the future.

King Ancar

• Big Bad Wannabe: Make no mistake, he IS a legitimate threat. However, he's "only" a Master-rank mage who craves Adept power and status, unaware that he is literally incapable of attaining that rank. Hulda is behind a good bit of a threat Ancar represents in his early appearances as the series Big Bad, and when Falconsbane makes the scene in the Mage Winds trilogy it's clear that Ancar comes in at a distant third place in the overall sorting algorithm of villainy and can never rise higher than he already has.
• Blood Magic: He takes a positive delight in it.
• The Evil Prince: Who eventually takes the throne by force.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: Trampled to death by Gwena, who for whatever reason does not give him a Coup de Grâce.
• Knight of Cerebus: Arrows of the Queen and Arrow's Flight focus on Talia's experiences coming of age at the Heraldic Collegium and growing into her powers and role as Queen's Own Herald; while she faces some serious challenges, the stakes are for the most part on a personal level. Ancar kicks off his rise to major antagonist in Arrow's Fall by murdering Kris and putting Talia through the most horrific tortures he can come up with; his presence changes the level of threat from personal to national via his war against Valdemar, which remains a primary source of conflict in the series through the conclusion of Winds of Fury.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Ancar declares war on Karse upon recieving news that Solaris is Son of the Sun. The attacks both allow Solaris to consolidate power and forces Karse into an alliance with their ancient enemy Valdemar. The two countries combined are able to fend off Hardorn's forces.
• The Oath-Breaker: Barely an aversion, if only because he made sure to crown himself without having to make any oaths. It's exactly this that causes the people of Hardorn to ensure their next king does take them. Still, Kerowyn muses that if she could find a mage she'd love to perform the oathbreaker ceremony her grandmother took part in for a different terrible king.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Tremane notes that had Ancar won, his victory would have fallen under this trope as he both bled his country dry and destroyed the ecosystem through his use of unshielded blood magic.
• Rage Against the Mentor: Against Hulda, who he blames for his inability to reach Adept status.
• Royal Brat: Never really grew out of the "I'm the prince, everyone else is a peasant" phase.
• Self-Made Orphan: Led a coup and assassinated his father. It's later revealed that he killed everyone in his extended family in order to prevent any rivals.
• Straw Misogynist: Believes that women are inherently inferior, which is why his army of conscripts consists only of men. It's also another lever Falconsbane uses to manipulate him, pointing out how a "lesser woman" like Hulda is still a more powerful and skilled mage than Ancar.
  • Falconsbane even assumes he declared war on Karse and Valdemar because they were ruled by women. While that probably is an influence, Ancar does have a more pragmatic reason as well. He needs to capture more territory to make Hardorn look too strong for the Eastern Empire to invade.
• Too Dumb to Live: Very nearly literally. He collected scraps of books and writings on magic and assumed that the Gate Spell would allow him to use nodes and "make" him an Adept, unaware and unknowing that a proper Gate requires more magical power than a Master can provide without dying. The only reasons it doesn't kill him are because his notes are incomplete so he can't make a "proper" Gate, and what he does create doesn't last long enough for him to suffer Life Drain.
• Torture Technician: He takes real joy in causing suffering and has a lot of toys at his disposal for just that. When he tortures Herald Talia, he makes sure to tell her exactly what he'll do to her first, just for his own amusement.
• Tyke Bomb: Hulda actually manages to achieve this unlike with Elspeth.
• Unwitting Pawn: Ultimately of the Eastern Empire. Ancar's war and rule was meant to weaken Hardorn enough to be easily conquered.
• We Have Reserves: Magically binds men into his army, then uses those coercions to force them to fight, though his strategy differs heavily from Falconsbane. Unlike Falconsbane, whose strategy is to strike hard, fast, and continually advance further into enemy territory, Ancar builds up his forces, makes several feints, finally attacks, fortifies whatever he managed to take, and repeats. Since this process all takes time, this gives Valdemar plenty of time to prepare.

Hulda

• Be as Unhelpful as Possible: Knows Ancar is incapable of becoming an Adept, but claims otherwise and that she will "eventually" teach him how to become one, as a means to keep him under her thumb. This backfires eventually.
• Blood Magic: Also a practitioner, and in fact introduced Ancar to it.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: The only reason she stops is because she's killed.
• The Corrupter: Successfully serves as this to Ancar and is driven off before she achieves this with Elspeth.
• Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: Hoo boy. First she's working for Orthallen to subvert or discredit Elspeth. When that fails she flees and successfully subverts Ancar to protect her own skin and gain some power for her own. Except even then she's ACTUALLY working for the Eastern Empire... and the Emperor suspects that she has other masters than himself as well...
• Logical Weakness: Hulda figures out the major weakness in Valdemar's Anti-Magic. Namely that it doesn't trigger if the mage doesn't use magic which is how she managed to operate in Valdemar despite being an Adept.
• Man Behind the Man: She was this for Ancar for a time, but by Winds of Fury he's chafing under her influence and starting to move against her.
• Meaningful Name: "Hulda" means "mole" in Hebrew.
• The Mole: If she's working for you, she is not on your side.
• Older Than She Looks: Seems to be around Ancar's age, but is at least old enough to be his grandmother.

An'desha shena Jor'ethan

The half Shin'a'in, half outblood descendant of Ma'ar. The body that Ma'ar possessed in order to become Mornelithe Falconsbane belongs to him, and thanks to the events of the Mage Winds trilogy he eventually reclaims it and his life.

• Animal Eyes: As with Nyara, he still has these after being restored to his original form.
• Badass Preacher: Eventually finds his vocation as a Shaman who (along with the Swordsworn) are the Shin'a'in equivalent of priests
• Bad Powers, Good People: He has access to all of Ma'ar's magic and knowledge. He uses this knowledge to fight the Final Storm and prevent a second Cataclysm.
• Character Development: Probably undergoes the most character development of anyone in all the books save maybe Elspeth. He goes from being a complete coward, whiny and pathetic who is co-dependent upon Firesong and becomes confident in himself and a powerful mage who will backtalk Firesong to his face, and that takes balls.
• Child Of Rape: Not him, but his mother, not that she knew it.
• Deuteragonist: An'desha's struggle with having been Ma'ar's host and his fear of becoming like him take second billing in Storm Warning.
• Demonic Possession: His body is taken over by Ma'ar, which Karal equates with Demonic Possession.
• Fighting from the Inside: An'desha in Winds of Fury as he helps destroy Falconsbane while trapped in his own mind.
• Green Thumb: Shows a particular affinity and liking for growing plants.
• Half-Breed Discrimination: He was born to the Shin'a'in, but the Clans are prone to Fantastic Racism and never allowed him to feel welcome, especially once he started to manifest the Mage-Gift. Even in Storm Rising, a Shin'a'in envoy sent to Valdemar to work with foreigners sneered at him until being won over.
• Hellish Pupils: Even after the Star-Eyed returns his body to how it was (mostly) before Falconsbane transformed it, he still has vertical pupils like a cat's.
• Heroic BSoD: In Storm Warning, after returning to his previous form and being freed from Falconsbane, he is constantly afraid he will turn back into him somehow, basically wallowing in his own fear and depression.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Karal; they are best friends with no sexual attraction between them.
• If It's You, It's Okay: He's smitten with Firesong at first sight, but when there's more focus on him in the Storms trilogy his narration reveals that he's otherwise always been interested in girls.
• Pals with Jesus: He is basically best friends with his Goddess's Avatars.
• Power Levels: He's an Adept. A Sorcerer-Adept like Urtho and Ma'ar, which he claims means he can create life, though this never ends up happening.
• Shrinking Violet: Before meeting Karal and his character development sets in.
• Two Guys and a Girl: With Karal and Natoli.

Avatars Dawnfire K'Sheyna And Tre'valen shena Tale'sedrin

Two victims of Falconsbane who the Star-Eyed allowed to live on as her Avatars, able to appear on the Moonpaths and to take the shape of fiery vorcel-hawks. Dawnfire used to be a Tayledras scout who was trapped in the body of her bondbird and Tre'valen was a shaman of the Shin'a'in who fell in love with Dawnfire after she became an Avatar.

• Ambiguously Absent Parent: Dawnfire's mother is mentioned briefly, a scout who considered something to be suspicious about Starblade disappearing for a few days and returning with a Creepy Crow for a bondbird. What happened to her - if she was with the half of the clan who were stranded far away during the Heartstone disaster, if she died in it, if she's still present - isn't discussed.
• Animal Eye Spy: Tayledras are usually able to casually split their attention and share their birds' senses, even while moving around and doing things. Dawnfire's one of the few in k'Sheyna who can't do that except when fully in trance, leaving awareness of her own body behind, which is risky if that body is in any danger. It wasn't generally a big deal for her because of her close bond with Kyrr as a particularly intelligent bird who understood what she needed and could just tell her what she saw.
• Alternate Animal Affection: Dawnfire can't cry and has no idea how to grieve Kyrr as a bird. Later, Tre'valen tries to court her in the spirit realm by shaping the form of his spirit into a smaller vorcel hawk and flying daringly, as a tiercel (male) hawk would fly to impress a female.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Becoming Avatars causes them to usually exist in the spirit world. They can visit An'desha and others on the Moonpaths, the trails that are safe for the living to visit, but are somewhere off them by default.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Darkwind thinks Dawnfire, as a seventeen year old, will react poorly to knowing about Nyara; she's observant enough to pick up that Darkwind is attracted to her but won't have the life experience to know that just because he's attracted doesn't mean he'll act on it. So he keeps Nyara secret and bars Dawnfire from going near her, which indirectly leads to Dawnfire getting trapped in her bondbird's body.
• The Confidant: To An'desha. They consider him to be their personal friend.
• Death of Personality: Kyrr's mind was annihilated when Dawnfire's body died, which gives her a little longer as herself, but even so her time as Dawnfire was limited, and she knew it was only a matter of time until she became just a confused bird.
• Divine Birds: As Avatars they take the forms of vorcel-hawks, a species particularly valued by the Star-Eyed and which She uses in an earlier novel to convey her favor.
• Divine Delegation: They do what Kal'enel tells them to, but they still have personalities of their own.
• Emergency Transformation: Dawnfire's transformation into an Avatar wards off the oncoming Death of Personality, wheras Tre'valen's averts... regular death, though in both cases their human bodies still die.
• Exact Words: Darkwind imperiously forbids her to go near the gryphons' territory and refuses to explain why. Dawnfire, resenting his treatment of her, decides he didn't forbid Kyrr, so goes into a trance and has her bondbird fly over so she can do an Animal Eye Spy - which means that when Falconsbane attacks the gryphons during their mating flight, he's able to capture Kyrr and kill Dawnfire's human body.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Dawnfire is Darkwind's girlfriend in Winds of Fate and he certainly is upset about her death, about finding her soul in her bondbird's body, and about her Emergency Transformation. In the next two books he doesn't think about her at all and they don't interact, nor does she talk about him.
• Friendship Denial: She was fascinated by the gryphons and tried to meet and befriend them as a younger teen, but was politely rebuffed and the gryphons indicated that they only really wanted closeness with Darkwind. Dawnfire was hurt by this and took to watching them from afar. Knowing about gryphon eyesight she takes them not confronting or avoiding her as tacit approval and hopes to earn acceptance.
• Friend to All Living Things: Dawnfire was a downplayed version of this before she became an avatar; she was a relatively sweet and gentle scout with the best track record in working with K'Sheyna's non-human allies. She also had a tight bond with her bondbird, Kyrr, which ultimately lead to her transformation into Kal'enel's vorcel hawk avatar.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Tre'valen sacrifices himself to help Dawnfire and is immediately reborn as an Avatar. Downplayed in the Storms trilogy. They burn out their physical link to the world in the Final Storm, but they continue to exist on the Goddess' plane, where An'desha or any other shaman can come visit them.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Moving and flying as a bird takes some practice, as Dawnfire finds. She no longer gets POV segments in Winds of Change, but when talking to Tre'valen she tries changing her birdlike spirit-form to resemble her human self for the first time and manages to appear as a woman-shape formed of glowing suspended particles, caught as if in glass. She had had some off-screen teacher telling her it was possible.
• Mauve Shirt: They were both introduced as their human selves. Dawnfire was Darkwind's lover and Tre'valen the Point of View character for the Shin'a'in-centered portion of Winds of Fate.
• Odd Friendship: The Avatars are close friends with Need. When they introduce her to An'desha in the spirit world, the Avatars are ethereal and otherworldly, formed from luminous particles of spirit energy held in loosely human-raptor forms. Next to them, Need's spirit-form is as solid and plain as bread, indistinguishable from a normal person.
• Our Angels Are Different: As Avatars of the Star-Eyed Goddess, they seem to be on a higher level than most angels who used to be human, more powerful. Instead of eyes they have dark voids sprinkled with stars, just as She does. When talking to a then-human Tre'valen in Winds of Change Dawnfire tells him that the Goddess hasn't talked to her and has left her to her own devices. They both appear at the end of Winds of Fury to instantaneously transform Nyara and An'desha into more human forms, something only Need was able to do at all and much, much more slowly.
• Out of Focus: Tre'valen moves in to the Vale at the same time as Elspeth in the start of Winds Of Change and it seems like he'll be a major character, but after a few strong initial scenes he only appears once before his death and rebirth as an Avatar.
• Red String of Fate: they are a life-bonded pair.
• Sexual Karma: After Darkwind saves some of Dawnfire's dyheli friends she comes on to him while he's bathing and is forwards and enthusiastic to a degree that he finds is rare for her but quite appreciates. She tells him it's his "reward for virtue".
• Spirit Advisor: To An'desha, starting from when he begins to rouse within Falconsbane in Winds of Fury.
• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: When Dawnfire's body was killed as she was pulling an Animal Eye Spy using her bondbird, her mind survived in Kyrr's body. She knows this sort of thing has happened before and that there's not enough space in a bird's head, even a one that can speak in complete sentences, to support a human mind, so becomes paranoid of every uncertain memory as the first sign of mental degradation. Need offers to transfer her either to something with a large enough brain to support her full capacities or to "something like a sword". Dawnfire takes the Star-Eyed's offer instead.

Son Of The Sun Solaris and Firecat Hansa

• Awesome Moment of Crowning: Moments after Vkandis took out the corrupt Son of the Sun with a Bolt of Divine Retribution, he (or rather, the statue he was animating) removed the crown from his own head and placed it on hers.
• The Chosen One: Chosen of Vkandis.
• Foil: To Selenay. Both are strong-willed rulers of their respective countries and had to face prejudice and opposition to come into their position. Talia says that the two of them are similar — Solaris wryly suggests that she may have meant they were too similar.
• Hero of Another Story: Solaris' political struggle against and reform of the corrupt priesthood of Karse would be worthy of its own series.
• Meaningful Name: "Solaris" is Latin for "of the sun"
• Modest Royalty: Is this in private, would be this in public if not for the episcopal pomp required by her position. Even in public, she eats modestly to make a point — she won't feast while her people starve.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Unlike most of her predecessors, Solaris is not prone to finding heresy everywhere she looks. She is also sympathetic to people as individuals, such as specifically granting Karal leave to go visit his family before sending him off with Ulrich on the diplomatic assignment to Valdemar. Additionally, she gets along very well with Queen Selenay and this makes it possible for Karse and Valdemar to not only make peace, but also become actual allies.
• She Is the King: She is the High Priest and Son of the Sun.
• Willing Channeler: As a Priest of Vkandis, she can serve as his voice when he wants to speak directly (though Karal notes that the Voice of Flame is less respected than it used to be since it's fairly easy to counterfeit). She also gives a fairly pointed rebuke to Tremane when he hesitates to use his Earth-sense, with the implication that the earth itself is speaking through her.

Karal Austreben

The hero of the Mage Storm series, Karal is a young Karsite priest who was assigned to be the assistant and secretary of to the Karsite Ambassador, his mentor Sun-Priest Ulrich. He is a Channel, meaning he can act as a conduit for magical power but can't use magic himself.

• Amazon Chaser: Downplayed, and he's paired off with another noncombatant, but he finds Kerowyn both incredibly intimidating and very attractive when they meet.
• Badass Bookworm: Very much so, though he doesn't physically fight.
  • Badass Preacher: He's a priest, he saved the world. Tell me that doesn't make him a Badass Priest.
• Bond Creature: With Altra, his Firecat. Firecats don't bond to a single person like Companions do, but they are more or less assigned to each other by Vkandis himself.
• Combat Pragmatist: To the extent that he's a fighter. Kerowyn trains him to defend himself with whatever he can reach, and he acquires the mental habit of looking at things as potential weapons.
• The Confidant: To An'desha
• Good Shepherd: He is a very good, kind priest who walks-the-walk, talks-the-talk and actually helps people, unlike most Valdemarans' views of Sun Priests.
• Heroic Sacrifice: At the end of the second and third book, he knows that serving as a Channel will probably get him killed. He does it anyway. The first time he nearly dies — he is very weak for a long time afterward — and the second time he goes blind.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With An'desha, who becomes his best friend, and Altra as well.
• Improbable Age: By the start of Storm Rising he is the top Karsite diplomat in Valdemar, involved in high-level conferences among a sizable alliance. He is seventeen at best. He looks even younger than he is. This is not a good thing and he knows it.
• Jurisdiction Friction: As the representative of Vkandis in Valdemar and later the Dhorisha Plains (both of which fall more under the Goddess's purview), he sometimes has to get special permission before he can act or ask Altra to act in his name. This comes up particularly in Storm Breaking. This is also why Florian does not Choose him, despite being his Companion in all but name.
• Nice Guy: He is ridiculously nice, partly because he's a priest, partly because it's just how he is.
• Noble Bigot: Karal was raised in Karsite propaganda and because of this suffers from major prejudices against non-Karsite peoples (especially Heralds and Companions), religions and magic. Most of his Character Development has him confront and overcome those prejudices.
• Non-Action Guy: He's in the thick of everything, but don't expect him to whip out a sword and start swinging. While he does get self-defense training, it's all of the 'keep yourself alive until you can run away' nature. Even his mage talent is entirely passive, letting him funnel massive amounts of energy but not letting him use any of it.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Referred to in story as "Karal's Lost Puppy Eyes", and used on Florian at least once. It's turned back on him by Florian, Altra, Firesong, and Need through Firesong's eyes later, when discussing looping the ghost of Vanyel Ashkevron into their efforts of stopping the Mage Storms.
• The Team Normal: In the third book, he's the least exceptional member of the group — and he knows it. Silverfox praises him for how well he's coping with a situation so far over his head and calls him an example to them all.
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: "Channels" had never been mentioned in magecraft before his appearance (possibly justified since magic in Valdemar had just been rediscovered), but his ability is critical at the climax of all three books.
• Two Guys and a Girl: With Natoli and An'desha.

Firecat Altra

A Firecat and hence the Karsite equivalent of a Companion, Altra was a Son of the Sun during his life and, at the order of Vkandis, was assigned to protect and guide Karal.

• The Archmage: Despite being 'only' a Master mage, there's very little the plot requires that he can't accomplish.
• Bond Creature: With Karal. After Karal becomes blind, he uses his mindlink with Altra to see.
• Cats Are Magic: Is a Master level mage, so is one step beneath Adept in power.
• Cats Are Superior: Though in this case, since Altra was previously a Son of the Sun, he does technically outrank Karal by quite a margin.
• I Let Gwen Stacy Die: When Tremane triggers his assassin, Altra is not quite fast enough to save everyone, and has to focus on protecting Karal because he has divine foreknowledge that Karal's abilities will be needed. As a result, he blames himself for Ulrich's death.
• Intellectual Animal: Justified in that, like the Companions, he is a reincarnated former human.
• Loves Secrecy: As Florian observes, cats like to keep secrets.
• The Needless: Altra spends most of the first book pretending to be a supernatural creature with no physical requirements who just vanishes mysteriously a lot, but eventually Karal finds out that he needs to eat and sleep just like anyone else and that's what he's been doing. Also, he's been stealing food out of unwillingness to let people see him eating.
• Mega Neko: He's about waist-high to Karal when on all fours. Despite this, Karal is able to pick him up and carry him, and he can use magic to appear to be a normal cat and walk on tables and so on.
• Noodle Incident: Upon learning Altra's name, Karal thinks "Wasn't that the name of the Son of the Sun who—?" just as he falls asleep. It is never revealed what Son of the Sun Altra did that was so significant.
• Playing with Fire: Unsurprisingly for a divine servant of a sun god, Altra can create and control fire. Especially in defense of his charge, Karal. (And if that should fail, he has a perfectly good set of claws). Getting into a fight with a Firecat is even more dangerous than doing so with a Companion.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: He helps Karal go behind Solaris' back to ally with someone who they know is good but who she personally hates.
• Spirit Advisor: Like a Companion, he is attached (or maybe better, 'assigned') to one priest as a mentor and friend.
• Telepathy: Unlike the Companions, Altra is quite open about being able to mindspeak with whoever he wants to. He can also enable Karal to see through his eyes.
• Teleportation: Altra can teleport himself as well as passengers, although he does have range and load limitations.
• Weirdness Censor: He has some kind of illusion magic which makes him look like a normal cat unless he chooses to appear otherwise. He can also make himself invisible.

Companion Florian

• Cool Horse: Like all Companions (don't say the 'horse' part too loudly, though).
• Foreshadowing: Even before the revelation that the Companions (except for the Grove-Born) are reincarnated Heralds or other worthy souls, Florian hints the legendary wisdom of the Companions 'depends on how many times you've been around'.
• Genki Guy: Florian is always friendly, upbeat and curious as a foil to the more solemn Karal and An'desha.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Burns himself out protecting Karal from the same fate in the last book.
• Intellectual Animal: As with all Companions, he's essentially a person in horse shape.
• Nice Guy: Is one of the more sweet tempered and friendly Companions in the series.
• Spirit Advisor: Florian is notable among Companions in that he is the only one in the series whose advice is not tendered to his Chosen Herald, but instead a non-Herald he is "assigned" to. In-Universe this is justified by the unique situation Karal is in; basically, the Companions decided that Karal was in dire need of an advisor who could tell him all the fine details of the political situation in Valdemar, not to mention keep him from accidentally starting any trouble due to cultural details no one had time to tell him about yet ^note things like 'don't mention sheep to Lord So-and-So; his greatest 'rival' made a fortune with them, partly because of that ridiculous rumour', or even 'Selenay's first husband tried to assassinate her, don't make any comments about troubled Royal marriages!' . The only being who could do this, and be trusted to do this (both to keep them from being accused of treachery, and from actually committing that) was a Companion. Florian was partly selected, partly volunteered from among the non-bonded Companions.

Ulrich

The first Karsite ambassador and a (formerly) black-robed Sun-Priest, and the mentor to Karal.

• Ambadassador: Ulrich is a very self-confident and unflappable individual, not least due to the fact that he is a powerful mage whose former job involved summoning and commanding demons. It is notable that he is assassinated through the use of magical weapons concealed in his quarters, rather than by an assassin that braved confronting him face-to-face.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Ulrich is a high ranked Black Robed Sun-Priest meaning that he used to summon demons and execute "witches" though he likely tried to avoid doing so as much as he could. Ulrich occasionally makes oblique references to things he did in the past.
• Laser-Guided Karma: He is mistakenly asassinated on the orders of Tremane, who is basically a younger version of himself: a fundamentally good man driven to doing terrible things because he sees no other option (and because the society he was born into conditioned him to see threats where there were none).
• Mentor Archetype: Ulrich is this to Karal. Although he is an ambassador and Karal is just his scribe and assistant, much of Ulrich's relationship with Karal is that of a wise elder teaching a student.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: He is killed in a magical assassination. Altra is very upset because he could not protect both Karal and Ulrich.

Natoli

• Genki Girl: Despite her youth, Natoli is a sort of stand-on-a-table-and-rally-the-troops figure among the artificers. She is extremely enthusiastic about not only her own work but about invention in general.
• Muggle Born of Mages: Her father is a Herald, but she herself does not have any Gifts. This does get noted by other characters. It is a point of pride for her that she still does important work, even if she is not a Herald.
• Science Hero: When Karal realizes that there's a pattern to the change-circles, he brings it to Natoli and the rest of the artificers, whose mathematical models end up saving the day in the first two books of the trilogy. Natoli herself is responsible for calculations regarding the magical breakwaters in the second.
• Two Guys and a Girl: With Karal and An'desha.
• Wrench Wench: Natoli is committed to the goal of inventing steam-powered engines.

Grand Duke Tremane

• Anti-Villain: Skeptical and ruthlessly pragmatic, but he's no worse than Noble Demon in many respects.
• Badass Bureaucrat: Tremane's military skill in huge part due to his bureaucratic and logistical skills. Most of his chapters deal with feeding, paying and keeping up the morale of his soldiers and later Shonar and Hardorn.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Multiple times Tremane offhandedly wishes that mages powers would work - in particular the ability to scry enemies as well as his own land. This gives Elspeth and Darkwind an opening to suggest activating his latent Earth-sense.
• Blessed with Suck: Tremane's Earth-sense is a double edged sword. On one hand, it gives him sorely needed magical assistance and allows him to work some magic on his country; on the other he's physically bound to Hardorn and can never leave, he feels all the pain the land feels and casting that magic is stated to be Cast From Hitpoints. Darkwind assures him that the "suck" will decrease as Hardon recovers, and that eventually the land will sustain him instead of draining him.
• Blood Magic: A rare benevolent example — the ritual that connects him to Hardorn through his Earth-sense involves mixing some of his blood with the soil. Darkwind tells him that someone so-bound could possibly give his life to restore the land, but only as a voluntary self-sacrifice.
• Boring, but Practical: Tremane's hat. He lacks the powerful Mage Gift, great charisma, unique vision or strategic genius present in other rulers, generals and leaders. Even his powerful Earth-Sense is a largely-passive ability without direct offensive applications. What he does have is the ability to focus on the many details of martial and civil leadership, which combined with naturally compassionate nature makes him an effective leader.
• Born Lucky: Subverted. Tremane's allies and rivals jealously note that Tremane has an ability to pull victory out of defeat that is unnaturally lucky. Tremane is bemused and the story shows that his success has less to do with luck and more to do with being detail-oriented, over-prepared, and ready to capitalize on any luck that might come.
• Cannot Tell a Lie: Inflicted by Solaris. Had he not already burned his bridges at that point, this would have stripped him of any ability to function as a noble in the Eastern Empire.
• The Corruptible: As noted by Sejanes, actually becoming Emperor would have turned him evil, since he would have had to go further and further past the limits of his ethics just to keep the Empire running. Alternatively, he would have ended up dead in a Doomed Moral Victor sort of way.
• Crazy-Prepared: The upside of his paranoia. For example, he has all the materials on hand to forge imperial documents; he never expected to need them, but since he had an opportunity to take them and a safe place to hide them...
• Cultured Badass: He finds calligraphy very soothing.
• Deuteragonist Certainly he had ongoing plotlines going on in the previous two books, but it's in Storm Breaking where Tremane has the most page time.
• A Father to His Men: Cares deeply about the troops under his command. He risks execution for treason to make sure they have supplies.
• The Fettered: Under two magical compulsions by the time he becomes King — Solaris' curse to tell only the truth and the Earth-binding that ties him to Hardorn. He accepts both with remarkable grace, all things considered.
• Fisher King: In order to take Hardorn's crown, he allows himself to be ritually bound to the earth. Hilariously, he thinks it's just a ritual, so he doesn't realize exactly what he's agreeing to until it's already happened.
• Flat-Earth Atheist: Tremane pays lip service to the Eastern state religion (the Hundred Little Gods) but relies mostly on logical scientific magic of the Empire. He refuses to acknowledge the existence of other powers outside of that system. This bites him hard when his Earth-sense is awakened.
• Friend to All Children: Personally leads search parties, in the middle of blizzards, to rescue Hardorn children. Tremane will consider the plight of children when making his decisions.
• Foil:
  • His situation reminds other characters of how Duke Valdemar founded his eponymous kingdom, long ago.
  • Tremane's approach to magic is a foil to Firesong. Firesong views magic solely as an intuitive art and resists any attempts to convince him otherwise which bites him hard when he encounters an unprecedented magical phenomenon (the Mage Storms) that he's never seen and can't intuit. Tremane views magic solely as a logical science and resists any attempts to convince him otherwise which bites him hard when he encounters a new magical phenomenon (his Earth-sense) that can't be logically analyzed. Lampshaded by Darkwind and Elspeth.
• The Good King: Especially compared to Ancar.
• Improperly Paranoid: Tremane's Fatal Flaw. He considers all possible motives for his friends' and enemies' actions and acts on the worst and most negative interpretation of their behavior. This makes it hard for him to trust people and leads to him preemptively burning bridges. His assassination of Ulrich almost deprived him of necessary and useful allies in the Alliance.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Even before the Mage Storms get rolling, he realizes taking Hardorn by force will be impossible. He pulls his troops back to Shonar and sets up base there, which ultimately turns out well for everyone.
• Magnetic Hero: Deliberately averted. Tremane has no personal charisma or skill for oration and his speeches tend to be direct and to the point. He earns the loyalty of his allies and followers through his actions rather than his words.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Tremane defects from the Empire once it becomes clear that the Emperor has abandoned him and his troops.
• Nerves of Steel: He keeps his head in almost all situations. The only times we see him truly rattled are when something comes up that he's never encountered before, like the first Mage Storms or his Earth-sense.
• Never Hurt an Innocent: He's outraged when he thinks the Mage Storms are a terror weapon because they strike indiscriminately and hurt civilians. His counterstrike, misaimed as it is, targets only those he thinks are responsible... and even that he thinks is Dirty Business.
• Noble Demon: At first. He arrives to complete the invasion of Hardorn, but he doesn't abuse his position. When he's cut off from the Empire, the town that he and his men hold accepts him as the local government because protects them and enforces fair laws.
• Offered the Crown: Of Hardorn... with conditions.
• Personality Powers: He has very strong latent Earth-sense, a Gift which assesses the wielder's surroundings and connects them with the people living there. He's pretty much been doing a non-magical version of that ever since he was introduced. When he becomes bound to the land of Hardorn, he gets benefits which are entirely practical — particularly the ability to monitor the entire country in a way which can't be blocked, detected, or intercepted — ideal for an entirely practical man like himself.
• Pragmatic Hero: He is willing to go for the simplest solution that will get the results he needs.
• Protectorate: Almost by instinct, he makes Shonar and its people into this when he has to decamp there with his army. He barters for labor rather than conscript it, setting up a mutually beneficial arrangement between his camp and the town, and in remarkably short time the locals let slip to Valdemar's envoys that they would have him as king if he accepted some safeguards.
• Ridiculously Average Guy: Look at the other tropes describing Tremane. Tremane is about as boring, practical and unremarkable as a ruler could be. Yet through good sense, proper planning and attention to detail, he's an incredibly effective — even beloved — ruler.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Even before being Offered the Crown, he was right in the action when needed, from helping haul supplies out of an Imperial warehouse to searching for lost children in the snow.
• Shadow Archetype: Baron Melles, his rival for the Imperial throne and who is a more ruthless version of Tremane. Melles represents who Tremane could have become had he remained in the Eastern Empire
• Shoot the Dog: He orders the assassinations of several key members of the new alliance in Valdemar, thinking they are sending the Mage Storms as an act of terrorism. He's dismayed and regretful when he realizes his mistake.
• The Stoic: As befits a courtier of the Empire, he shows little emotion or vulnerability. The army is a machine, and it's his job to keep the machine running well.
• Strategy Versus Tactics: Tremane represents a near perfect blend of short term tactics, long term military strategy, civilian governance and (implied) court politics. He can fight short term battles and leads his army effectively enough that his troops adore him. He's also heavily focused in mundane logistics and how to most effectively use the supplies and troops under him command. Finally, he both knows how to establish himself as a leader and later King. Tremane could have taken Hardorn easily had he not been placed in an unwinnable situation. There's a reason why he was the favorite to be Heir to the Empire.
• Unperson: Charliss strikes him from the Empire's records and removes his name once news of his defection reaches the Empire.
• They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: Karal is astonished to note that the leader of the Imperial Forces and the man who ordered Ulrich's assassination looks like an unassuming bureaucrat.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Temaine is notably friendlier and more open after being crowned. It's implied that he's become less paranoid and cynical, allowing his natural good nature to take over.
• Vetinari Job Security: He isn't executed for Ulrich's murder because he doesn't have a clear successor that could keep the Empire's army and the town of Shonar united. If he goes, so does the hierarchy keeping Shonar from collapsing into poverty (again). Even the leaders of Shonar come to recognize this.
• What You Are in the Dark: Karal and company watch his actions remotely and see that he's a fundamentally decent person even when he's unaware he's being seen.
• The Women Are Safe with Us: He approves of his Empire's anti-rape laws and copies them in his new kingdom. More innocuously, he cares about preventing intercultural misunderstandings between his soldiers and civilian women.

Silverfox kena Leshya'nay/K'Leshya

• Camp Gay: Not as blatant as Firesong, but he does not hide it.
• Even the Guys Want Him: He is very pretty...
• Happily Married: Basically this with Firesong by the time the Owl Trilogy occurs
• The Heart: His job description. He does a lot of little things to keep the group at Urtho's tower calm and focused, plus he is the one who brings Firesong down from near-insanity when the Mage Storms weaken his psyche.
• High-Class Call Girl: Sort of. He's a kestra'chern, a traditional Kaled'a'in profession that combines Healer, counselor, mediator, and entertainer. He can and will bed someone if it will help restore harmony in the group, but he is not regarded as a prostitute.
• There Are No Therapists: As a kestra'chern he's just about the closest the setting has to being one. Silverfox is instrumental in talking Firesong down from his jealous frenzy in Storm Rising and realizing its cause, and helps keep him more balanced and centered afterwards.

Baron Melles

• 0% Approval Rating: In contrast to Tremane, Melles has very few allies in the Empire - only General Thayer supports him. This is partly due to Tremane's popularity and partly due to people being uneasy with Melles' reputation as Charliss' personal magical assassin. Furthermore, he almost loses what support he manages to build when he nearly crossed an In-Universe Moral Event Horizon and only some quick thinking and an effective propaganda machine stops a potential revolt.
• Assassin Outclassin': As a former assassin himself, he has no trouble taking out a younger attacker, finding out who hired him, and leaving the man's body where it will most clearly send a message.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Doesn't understand how soldiers and generals have qualms about killing kids when they're paid to kill men.
• Fights Like a Normal: Despite being an Adept-class mage, he uses no magic 'on-screen,' and the one fight he gets into is a purely physical affair. Justified, since the Mage Storms had made magic unreliable.
• Hobbes Was Right: Rules through a combination of iron-fisted fear and manipulation. Surprisingly, it works and Melles establishes order in a rapidly deteriorating empire
• The Kingslayer: Kills Charliss, mostly because by that point he'd become too much of a liability.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Melles is this to the Charliss. Melles might be a ruthless but he's still pragmatic and reasonable. The mage storms have eroded the Charliss' sanity to the point that he's no longer rational and is motivated only by rage, fear and vengeance.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Melles killing Charliss stops him from casting a spell that would have augmented the Mage Storms and destroyed Valdemar, Hardorn and the Empire.
• No Love for the Wicked: He shows no sexual interest, let alone romantic interest, in anyone — even after he becomes the heir and needs to look for a potential empress, he evaluates women in terms of cost and benefit. He even considers taking some nobody for a wife, as a former Emperor did, and making it clear she's just a placeholder.
• Professional Killer: Was the emperor's personal assassin and Melles still occasionally uses this skillset
• Propaganda Machine: Melles cements his rule by using an effective propaganda machine to whip up hatred against Charliss
• Pragmatic Villainy: Melles is a sociopath restrained by his practicality and pragmatism. He might be evil but he's not stupid and it's how he's still alive.
• Revenge Before Reason: Averted. Melles gives up sending an assassin after Tremane, reasoning that it is a waste of valuable resources
• The Rival: To Tremane. They hated each other since their youth when Tremane cost Melles a career in the army.
  • Unknown Rival: Tremane doesn't think about Melles once in two books while Charliss and Melles assume they're hated rivals.
• Sanity Has Advantages: Eventually, everyone silently agrees that Melles is a more effective ruler than the insane Charliss.
• Shadow Archetype: Baron Melles is this for Tremane. Tremane is a Grand Duke with a substantial duchy, a career military officer and a master level mage. Baron Melles is a landless noble, an assassin and an Adept level mage. Both are Anti-Villain but different flavors of the type. Tremane is fundamentally a good man driven to doing terrible things in the name of practicality and pragmatism. Baron Melles is a sociopath restrained by his practicality and pragmatism. Both are also effective leaders, guiding respectively Hardorn and The Empire through the storms. In short, Melles is who Tremane could have become if he stayed in the Empire.
• Would Hurt a Child: Threatens a rival's child. This actually backfires on him and he nearly loses what support he managed to build because people aren't comfortable with child killers.